Fostering learner engagement
1. Fostering learner engagement
Now that you've learned about DataCamp's process, tools, and approach to pedagogy, let's discuss fostering engagement with learners.2. Your favorite teachers
Let's start by considering the people you learned the most from, whether it was an elementary school teacher or your favorite grad school professor. They may have been your favorite because they were effective at keeping you motivated and remained engaged with the materials. You had likely had in-person interactions with these mentors, and their friendliness, optimism, or charisma likely played a big role in your engagement in the class. For DataCamp courses, we are not inside the room with the learners, so we need to use alternative tools and tricks to generate enthusiasm and keep them motivated.3. General devices
Let's talk about those tools and tricks. One of the best ways to engage the learners in your DataCamp course is to use compelling examples. Our learners are interested in real-life applications! Throughout your course, you can also use interesting datasets and create titles for slides, exercises, and chapters that incite curiosity.4. Motivation from the start
There are many ways to keep your interactive exercises exciting and engaging. Let's see a few. Each exercise has a learning objective, and you should motivate its usefulness. In the example shown, we start with a fun title that relates to the exercise itself. The instructor then briefly describes the dataset, and introduces a real-world problem with the data.5. Be encouraging
During an exercise, if a learner is stuck, they will probably request a hint. The worst result would be an unhelpful, condescending message, such as "You should know this" or "The syntax here is simple". Encountering an unhelpful or condescending hint can be extremely frustrating, and could cause learners to lose motivation to complete the course. Keep a positive tone, and help the learners feel like they can do it. In the example shown, the instructor refers to a lesson learned in a previous exercise. This reduces learner frustration, as the learner can recall things they may have done previously.6. Hints about hints
It can be very tempting to use a hint to help the learner out as much as possible - but don't give in! We want our learners to feel challenged and excited about the material they encounter, so a hint should be used to jog their memory or provide a piece of information that new learners often miss. Try to remember when you were first learning this material - what mistakes did you make? Take a look at this hint as an example. It points out an error the learner may have made and examples of syntax they've previously used.7. Celebrating success!
Finally, make use of the exercises' success messages. While you'll want to give your learner some praise, be sure to focus on interesting outcomes or findings from the exercise. In this example, the instructor shows excitement for the learner's success, highlight insights about the results of code, and invites the learner to continue on.8. Video best practices
In a video exercise, you want to motive learners to use the new skills they learn. Be sure to congratulate learners for their success in the preceding exercises, especially if they were difficult. Another great device is to tell stories. A little break from the content will add a more human dimension to your course. When you're close to the end of a video, you should invite the learners to take the concepts or tools you've covered in your video and apply them in practice. And lastly, but very importantly, sound enthusiastic! There are many more ways to create engaging and exciting videos, and we will cover them in more depth in the next chapter.9. Exciting times!
Now it's time to test your knowledge of tools and tricks for learner engagement. Good luck!Create Your Free Account
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