Jigsaw Interactive has created an innovative and robust technology platform for virtual training in business and the virtual classroom in education. Their robust tool helps trainers and teachers deliver an interactive, personalized learning experience for their students on both an individual and collaborative group level. Student engagement is the priority for Jigsaw as demonstrated by the innovative and immersive virtual learning environment with learning tools that allow students and teachers to work together. By providing teachers with a virtual tool to utilize multiple types of media for an immersive learning experience that actually gets students involved in the learning process improves their overall academic success.
As a teacher in a 100% virtual school that uses the Jigsaw platform daily for instruction, I can see firsthand how this impacts student motivation, engagement, and learning. Virtual teachers need an environment to get students actively engaged in their own learning as well as data to evaluate after the session to determine what content to reteach or review. In any one of my live classes, I can play a countdown timer video, welcome my students on the webcam, share a presentation or document, annotate the information, copy and paste details to the whiteboard for students to annotate, screen share and demonstrate another program or resource live, and get their feedback using emoji responses or their answers in polls and assessments. All of this can be done together in the main room as one large group or I can move students into breakout rooms for individual assistance or allow students to work collaboratively in small groups on a task. Successful learning outcomes occur when highly motivated students are actively engaged in the learning process. (Yun & Park, 2020). Successful learning occurs in the Jigsaw Interactive virtual classroom.
Boredom Beater
Gone are the days when students or adults were willing to sit and listen to a teacher or trainer lecture for any length of time. We live in a fast-paced world with responsibilities and distractions pulling at us from every direction. For the learning environment to prove effective, it has to be interactive, engaging, and motivating. According to Reiser and Dempsey (2018), a classroom that never changes, has stale stimuli, and is led by an instructor that bores us to sleep will never spark our curiosity to learn more. Instead, learners need frequent changes of topics, tactics and instructional media to improve learning outcomes. Jigsaw Interactive’s platform beats the boredom by providing a multitude of ways for instructors and learners to interact with each other and actively participate in a live class session together or collaboratively. Teachers can creatively gauge student progress throughout the lesson by having them answer questions on the mic, on the webcam, in the chat, using a polling option, adding to the whiteboard or annotating the presentation or document. Having multiple approaches to sharing and interacting with participants in the virtual classroom diminishes the isolation feeling of an online learning environment and increases motivation and task engagement. (Irwin, 2022).
Relevant Pieces
Being able to create multiple opportunities for student engagement is essential in the online environment. (Martin & Bollinger, 2018). Whole group instruction can occur in the main room utilizing the presentation screen, whiteboard area, screen sharing, video and web cam. Small groups or individualized instruction can occur in customized breakout rooms. Various reinforcement or enrichment activities could be placed in breakout rooms to allow students to choose which personal learning goal they would like to meet during that live session. When learning becomes relevant to the student motivation to learn increases. Meaningful challenges also can create relevance. (Reiser & Dempsey, 2018). For example a friendly competition of an escape room challenge that moves throughout the breakout rooms with students successfully reaching the finish line and accomplishing educational tasks along the way. Students could work individually or further develop social skills by working together as a team to reach the end. Having the ability to move about in the virtual classroom as one would in a face-to-face classroom increases friendly interactions with peers, builds social skills, and helps with overall engagement.
Feedback that Fits
Active engagement has been found to be critical to learning and collaborative knowledge building and can be achieved via teacher to student or student to student learning. (Meyer, 2014) In terms of motivation, feedback can serve as a valuable learning tool as it can reinforce content mastered or identify gaps that remain. Teachers have the opportunity to provide feedback with Jigsaw Interactive by posting the anonymous polling results of the class allowing students to see for themselves if they got an answer correct or if they’re feeling the same emotions as their classmates. Instructors can utilize the breakout rooms as individual coaching rooms to provide constructive feedback on the progress of a student’s project. All of the same tools of the main room are available in the breakout rooms including the webcam, mic, chat, whiteboard, presentations, documents, annotation, and screensharing. Students also have the ability to work in teams or pairs to provide peer reviews of student work, learn from each other and demonstrate their own knowledge of a certain skill or learning standard. When feedback is used to encourage and support the completion of a challenging task, the motivation to keep learning and to keep working towards a successful outcome increases engagement. (Reiser & Dempsey, 2018).
Conclusion
Jigsaw Interactive’s technology is a game changer for effective virtual learning and collaboration in both the educational and business environments. Providing students with different learning styles with the ability to experience learning through a variety of engaging digital media tools in one place decreases boredom, increases active participation, and improves learning outcomes and retention. Jigsaw’s analytics deliver analytics to teachers and trainers about what students are doing in class to further assist with improving active engagement and learning. Don’t be puzzled any longer about which platform to use for your virtual learning environment. Choose technology that is proven effective, proven dynamic, and proven to be a unique learning environment experience. Choose Jigsaw Interactive.
References
Irwin, B. (2022). Strategies to Build a Community of Learners in Online Classes. Research-Publishing.Net.
Martin, F., & Bolliger, D. U. (2018). Engagement Matters: Student Perceptions on the Importance of Engagement Strategies in the Online Learning Environment. Online Learning, 22(1), 205–222.
Meyer, K. A. (2014). Student engagement in online learning: What works and why. ASHE Higher Education Report, 40(6), 1–114. https://doi.org/10.1002/aehe.20018
Reiser, R. A., & Dempsey, J. V. (2018). Trends and issues in Instructional Design and Technology. Pearson.
Yun, H., & Park, S. (2020). Building a structural model of motivational regulation and learning engagement for undergraduate and graduate students in higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 45(2), 271–285. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2018.1510910
Jigsaw Interactive not puzzled about student engagement.
IDT520-O 01 Blog Case Study Response 2
Week 2.2 Project
Tricia Sang
https://drdeason.wixsite.com/201911-blog-idt520/post/jigsaw-interactive-not-puzzled-about-student-engagement
What drives student engagement?
During the novel coronavirus pandemic, for over a year, many of us struggled to engage students in a virtual setting with a variety of LMS (Learning Management Systems) that were developed, some tested and proven, others were on a case-by-case basis. No one was really prepared, and we were all flying by the seat of our pants as instructors/teachers to make it all work and get our students engaged and keep them that way so they could continue learning in a virtual world that all of us found daunting at first. How to we…
Boredom Beater: Traditional lectures are a thing of the past, and Jigsaw Interactive provides the solution. Reiser and Dempsey (2018) rightly point out that a stagnant classroom with a monotonous routine won't ignite curiosity. Jigsaw's interactive features offer a wide range of engagement options, and as an instructional designer, you can make the most of this. For instance, in a virtual business training, instead of a dry PowerPoint, you could integrate short videos, interactive quizzes, and discussions. Imagine starting with an engaging video, followed by a quiz that tests participants' understanding. This approach keeps participants alert and actively involved, ensuring that the online session remains anything but boring (Irwin, 2022).
Relevant Pieces: In the world of virtual learning, relevance is…
Jigsaw Interactive seems like a fantastic tool to use with online learning. As an educator as well, I found that encouraging small groups was one of the more difficult aspects of the virtual classroom. Looking specifically at breakout rooms, teachers can encourage engagement by using structured paired activities (SPA) where the teacher assigns roles, duties, and clear objectives. Read et al. (2022) found that students who worked in breakout rooms with specified jobs and outlined objectives achieved more than those students who were in unstructured rooms. This divvying up of jobs allows students to self-regulate and be productive without the assistance of the teacher or tutor in the room with them – they understand that the activity is meaningful to…