Sometimes we aren’t sure what our students are seeing, hearing or focusing on. Do your students even listen to video lectures/presentations that you post online? Do they notice the things that you are emphasizing or is their attention elsewhere?
Here is a humorous example from the news highlighting our own attention span. What captured YOUR attention in this clip? Could you focus on the news?
On a more serious note, here are a few articles related to student attention that you might be interested in reading:
Why Can’t Students Just Pay Attention? from May 4th 2015 Faculty Focus This article is good for online or face-to-face instructors. Five ways to engage students. A quick read that may be worth your time.
And from the DailyGenius, here are 27 Effective Ways to Get Students to Pay Attention and the infographic that accompanied the article. While some of these strategies seem particularly geared towards k12 students, many could apply to higher education face-to-face or synchronous classroom settings, or easily modified to reach an older population. See what you think and feel free to add any strategies that you use to engage your students.
