ActiveTextbook: The Solution for Online Learning
Online learning (eLearning) has become a global phenomenon as many educational institutions have entered the field in an effort to improve the student learning experience. While eLearning has many benefits such as cost saving and customizing learning materials, it does have a few shortcomings compared to traditional classrooms.
Two of the biggest disadvantages of eLearning have been lack of student interaction and motivation. In traditional classrooms, students are able to interact with each other and learn from one another by asking questions or listening to comments of others. This traditional environment has greatly enhanced learning and helped students stay engaged and motivated. To bridge the gap between traditional classrooms and online learning, ActiveTextbook provides a platform with interactive features that improves teaching and learning experiences and helps students stay engaged. In this blog, we will look at a few ways instructors can boost the student learning experience using ActiveTextbook:
Initiate Discussions
ActiveTextbook allows instructors and students to initiate conversations by adding a discussion board to course materials. Students can use this feature to start conversations with one another, give feedback, make comments and ask questions from the instructor or other students. This feature helps students to challenge, develop, acquire, and check ideas; and also motivate each other to study and learn quicker. Furthermore, the discussion board will help learners to become connected to a topic and develop habits of collaborative learning. It is also an avenue for participation for students who do not feel comfortable sharing their thoughts in a traditional classroom setting.
Add Quizzes
With ActiveTextbook, instructors can engage their readers by adding quizzes and questionnaires to test students’ knowledge or get their opinions. Getting right answers motivates and encourages learners to move forward, which will aid in achieving higher course completion rates. Having frequent quizzes persuades students to study and reduces procrastination.
ActiveTextbook allows teachers to add Multiple-choice, true/false, fill-in-the-blank and open-ended questionnaires and quickly analyze in what areas students have demonstrated learning gaps. The online quizzes also allow instructors to see if these learning gaps are class wide and to use this data to improve the assessment process.
Add interactive elements
Designing a high quality course is not enough, unless instructors successfully engage and motivate students to learn. Interactivity in eLearning aids students to deepen their understanding of the subject matter through experimentation. Studies show that interactivity has also proven to activate long-term memory and improve attention.
ActiveTextbook takes learners from reading to interacting by allowing Instructors to embed the course materials with videos, images, audio clips, texts, attachments, and interactive widgets in order to liven up the text and further encourage students to study. In addition, ActiveTextbook allows learners to make notes, highlight the text, bookmark pages, use the built-in dictionary, and add their own interactive features to the books. Furthermore, learners can share their books with others, which gives students a window into how other students read.
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Use these interactive features to improve online learning and develop an engaging course, in which students feel encouraged and motivated to participate in discussions and share their ideas with others.