Engagement For Online Meetings

We have dealt with a lot of screen time since the shutdown in March. We have stared at screens, presented google slides, and watched google slide presentations. There could be a lot of reasons for that. You could be a boss, and employee, a teacher, or even a student. Either way, I think we are all pretty sick of it. So what can we do about it? I have some tips on how to increase engagement and also make things a little less boring for yourself as well.

1. Nearpod

Nearpod is made for teachers to use with students, but that doesn't mean others can use it too. Their website is free and easy to use. They have a lot of different interactive activities that go with their slides making it an easy resource that keeps people engaged.

You can embed videos and ask questions a long the way to keep engagement. You can have polls and collaboration boards. Nearpod also provides VR tours, memory games, fill in the blank, and more. And while it is kid-friendly, it is not childish like peardeck or other lesson websites.

My favorite part about Nearpod is the reports it provides. After you have run a lesson, you can receive data from the lesson. You can see level of engagement, answers, and any other data you might need to collect from your meetings. They provide downloadable/printable PDFs that gives a summary of each lesson.

(P.S. if you have the paid version you can convert your google slides into Nearpod, that way you don;t have to reinvent the wheel.)

2. Google Polls

Not interested in making a lesson but still need to collect some quick data? Google Meets has provided some options to you right in the meeting itself. When you look at the chat box there are three icons from left to right: the person, the chat icon, and the shapes. You're going to want to focus on the shapes. When you click on it it offered many great features.

You can do breakout rooms for easier collaboration. You can also do Polls. You have to create them in the meeting itself, which can be a little time consuming, but overall this is an easy tool to collect quick data and keep engagement.

3. Give Meaningful Breaks

Anyone can give a ten minute break here or there, but what does that really mean when it comes to these virtual meetings? The screen fatigue is real, and ten minutes to stare at a different screen such as their phone or just be in a different tab won't help. I have found that providing meaningful breaks goes a lot better.

A meaningful break is a break from your current tasks to do something different that has a task. For example: provide them ten minutes to do yoga or ten minutes to walk around. Telling them to do something will give them a chance to give their brains a break from the screen and the tasks you are working on in you meeting. Yoga With Adriene provides great yoga practices that are under ten minutes, but you can find anything that works for you and the people you are presenting to!

4. Be Silly And Off-Topic

I know, that seems a little counter-productive, but this may be the most important one. Learning and working in a socially distanced and quarantined world has led to a lot of loneliness. Humans are missing human interactions, and the people you are presenting to are humans.

It's a little unreasonable to ask your students or employees to sit there day in and day out without any positive social interactions. You jam pack your meetings with content and you are all business. This brings down engagement. Give them time to be social. Beginnings and ends are good places for you to put an icebreaker question up, and then just let the conversation devolve.

One of the best things I've done in my meetings is allow natural conversations to occur. We will be in the middle of business and learning, but something off-topic yet related will come up. Let it happen, give them time, and build that community humans miss so much online.

At the end of the day, we are all trying our best. That is important for you to remember with your students, or employees, or bosses, or even yourself. Keep yourself and other engaged by making things more interactive. Good luck!

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