Purdue Instructional Technology Certificates Hub (PITCH)

Some students are much harder to reach than others, and different factors influence their disengagement from the home environment to various academic, communication, and relationship factors. Teachers might not have control over students’ home environment but can play an important role in overcoming academic, communication, and relationship barriers. Teachers can apply different strategies to strengthen teacher-student interaction and help increase student engagement: randomly calling on students; keeping track of student contributions; having live, synchronous, whole group and small group discussions; actively participating in asynchronous discussions through audio, video, or text; and implementing various ways of connecting with students even outside live virtual sessions.