Author: mksatyal

As we watched Michael Wesch’s TEDx talk in class on Wednesday, I found myself relating to his students. With each statement presented in the video, I thought back to my time as an undergraduate student.

I complete 49% of the readings assigned to me. 

Same.

I buy hundred dollar textbooks that I never open.

And then get $10 for them when you try to sell them back to the bookstore. By junior year, I had stopped buying textbooks altogether.

My neighbor paid for class… but never comes.

I’ve been guilty of being that neighbor in some classes. Personally, the classes I enjoyed most have emphasized application. My favorite course as an undergraduate was biochemistry. I was so happy to be done with memorizing endless chemical reactions and start thinking, instead, about how different stimuli affect the human body. I was excited to share my thoughts on case studies rather than filling in bubbles on scantrons. The question of how to engage students doesn’t always have an easy answer. I would say that students are most engaged when they can see the usefulness or relevance of their course material to their lives. This is easier in courses like the 20-student biochemistry course I took as an undergraduate, where instructors and students can get to know each other. But when I start thinking about how to keep a lecture hall full of 400 students engaged, admittedly I’m stumped. I see similar challenges to creating engagement and meaningful discussions when using online platforms in education. The internet is amazing in that it lets us connect to practically anyone on the planet synchronously or asynchronously; and certainly the availability of online courses makes education more accessible by removing geographic barriers. However, whether online or in-person, the question of how to get students to engage critically with course material remains.