With better flexibility, convenience, comfort, and cost-effectiveness provided, online teaching platforms are increasing rapidly. However, along with a bucket full of benefits, comes some challenges too. For effective online teaching and learning, making students engage in the classes is very important. The online course builder or the teacher often faces issues to make students more vocal and participative in the class. Making students interact via screenshot can be difficult but not impossible. Let us discuss some effective tips that online teachers can follow to overcome the student engagement challenge and make students more engaged in learning. 
How to increase student engagement in online classes 

1. Focus on the class decorum

As in conventional classes, students have to follow a set of instructions and rules, the same needs to be implemented for online classes too. If students won’t discipline the whole class environment will be disturbed. This can affect the teaching quality and class engagement. All online instructors must make sure to focus on the class decorum. Create a code of conduct and explain it to the students in the first introduction class itself. 

• Attend the class from a dedicated place: if students learn in a noisy or disturbing place, they stay distracted and participate less. Ask students to select a dedicated study space that is calm and peaceful. This will help them to seek a proper academic understanding.
• Punctuality: if students join the class late, they will miss the important discussions that are held. Entering the classes late can lead to confusion. To make sure that your students stay active and engaged, ask them to be punctual for the classes.

2. The right study material

Teachers reading out the textbook material and students listening won’t work to have an engaging class. The printed lessons in the textbooks are boring and less understandable for students. To make students more engaged in the classes, use audio-visual tools to teach. 

• Videos: today’s kids are highly attracted to technology so why not use the same in education. Make high-quality attractive videos on course subjects. Video presentations can be made too. With the help of visualization, students tend to understand the concepts better and quicker. Learning becomes more fun and interesting too. 
• Online quizzes: another way to have high-class engagement is by conducting online quizzes. Keep it attractive with interesting video and audio clips. Quizzes make the classes competitive and more participatory. 

3. Communicate via different methods

Some students are quite active speakers while some are hesitant to speak. Forcing students to speak up may not work. As it can make them feel stressed, or more frustrated. Have patience and look for unique solutions by which you can make your students engaged in the class. If not vocally, then how? The online educational apps offer features and facilities like a chat box. 
You can ask your students to stay active by answering in the chat box. You can ask students a few questions and tell them to type the answers there. Then call out the students by their names and appreciate them for the right answers given. Gradually with time, students will become confident to speak up too. 

4. Set rewards and give motivation

To make students more engaged in learning, set a reward system. Tell them that students who will be more participatory will be given the best student batch or top performer of the week certificate. This will surely give students a boost to be more engaged in learning. Also sometimes, in online teaching, students face a sense of isolation which affects their class performance. In such cases, you need to give students a motivational boost. Stay in touch, have general discussions, and be affectionate to keep them motivated. 

5. Give timely feedback

Along with teachers taking efforts to boost the class engagement rate, accountability from students is equally important. To do so, teachers should give timely feedback to the students. If feedback is not given, students feel less valued, unmotivated, or didn’t realize their weak points. To prevent this from happening with your students, tell them what their strengths are and where they are lagging. 
Suggest to students with the study solutions by which they can improve their class participation. Also, you need to explain to students to take feedback constructively only. Teachers are students’ well-wishers only. So do tell your students to be positive and use the feedback given for improvement and betterment. The course selling website, sending emails, one on one calls, or individual virtual interactions are some tools that can be used to give feedback to online learners. 
Conclusion
For successful online teaching, having effective student engagement in the classes is important. By following the above-mentioned tips, teachers can boost students’ engagement and participation in online classes. This will lead to better learning outcomes and teaching growth respectively.