Even before your course officially starts, get your students engaged by filling out a pre-course questionnaire. It’s easy to create using Microsoft forms or some other platform and then sending out the link to your students the week before classes start. This not only sets the scene for an interactive course but also allows students to convey information on their personal circumstances.

Online forums and discussion boards have a dismal reputation for poor student engagement. If these are used at all, it’s either by a small subset of students or as an administrative app for students to seek clarifications or guidance on assessment tasks. Instead, try combining the power of reflection and peer-engagement in an asynchronous forum activity that encourages your students to present

Online, asynchronous learning offers students the greatest flexibility: it allows delivery of content on-demand and irrespective of where a student happens to be. The key to success for this online format, paradoxically it seems, is to encapsulate this flexibility with structure. Without structure, a student’s self-regulation, motivation and engagement with the course flounders. Providing