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Interactivity & social presence

How do we create structures where students really need each other?

Activate learning between teaching sessions

Try this

Next time you record a lecture: After about 10 minutes , add a reflection question and put a short quiz in the middle of the lecture. End with a question that the students answer in a discussion forum. When you meet, you can start from the students' answers instead of repeating the content.

Experiences from HEaD

The most interesting conclusion from the Interactive Media project is probably that asynchronous teaching does not have to be passive teaching. Through thoughtful use of interactive media, teachers can create activity, reflection, dialogue and peer learning even when students and teachers are not in the same place or working at the same time. This is probably the most transferable lesson from the entire project and has great relevance for both campus and distance education.

Contact: Lennart Franked, Olof Björkqvist, Mazhar Hussain

  • Make videos active instead of passive. Add quizzes, reflection questions, discussion questions, and/or checkpoints during or after the video. 
  • Use asynchronous interaction in preparation. Have students answer questions, discuss, and highlight ambiguities before a teaching session.
  • Work systematically with peer learning. Peer review can be used in most subjects and course levels. Provide clear criteria and allow students to reflect on both given and received feedback.
  • Collect students' reasoning. Use activities that make students' thinking visible. This will allow teaching to be better tailored to their needs.
  • Prioritise quality over quantity. A few well-designed interactive activities are likely to have a greater effect than many small activities without a clear purpose.
  • Start small. Test in a limited course element before rebuilding the entire course. This was also the project group's own strategy.

Strengthen social support for distance learning

Try this

Be clear about where students can turn with questions and create several natural points of contact during the course. Early intervention and easily accessible support can make a big difference to students' ability to progress in their studies.

Experiences from HEaD

Student interaction is an important factor for learning and throughput in distance education. The project Increased student interaction in distance courses in psychology shows that well-thought-out course design, clear communication and opportunities for collaboration can strengthen both engagement and social cohesion in online courses.

Contact: Lena Werner, Ulrika Danielsson

  • Create a clear and predictable course structure.
  • Use recorded lectures to support learning.
  • Plan for meaningful student-student interaction.
  • Design high attendance elements to increase participation.

Building community between campus and distance learning

Try this

Use mixed presentation groups for seminars: Create groups with both campus and distance students. Give each group a common task. Let the group present their conclusions together. Focus on tasks that require discussion and joint decisions rather than individual reporting.

Experiences from HEaD

Another project has investigated how to create better community and collaboration between campus and distance students through interactive working methods (e.g. ALC hall, cross-groups and seminars in Zoom). It was found that interactive presentations in mixed groups increased both the community and learning.

  1. Make it a mandatory activity so that both distance and 
    Campus students participate.
  2. If possible, try to be two teachers in the room, then one can take care of it 
    technical in the beginning and one can instruct the students. Even when you 
    going to walk around the hall and listen to all the groups, it's good to be 
    two.
  3. Book a walkthrough of the interactive hall together with 
    educational developer and IT support.
  4. Use clear instructions for the presentation so that the students
    are well prepared. 
  5. Ask campus students to arrive 10 minutes before the start of the seminar
    to have time to start up the technology in the hall. 
  6. Students must know their student login.
  7. If there are no cameras for each table in the reporting room, ask the campus students to bring their own computer/tablet where they can connect to Zoom without sound. 
  8. Plan in advance who will report with whom and make sure that the groups include both campus students and distance students.
  9. Create the breakout rooms in advance. 
  10. Give an instruction to everyone before opening the Breakout Rooms.
  11. Participate in the presentations by walking around the hall and listening to what the groups are saying with a headset connected to each table. 
  12. Conclude the presentations by gathering the students again.

Design meetings that students really need

Try this

The meeting that solves a problem: For the next time you meet, online or physically, give the students an authentic problem and let them work together in smaller groups. End with each group sharing their solution. If the task cannot be solved as well on your own, the motivation to participate increases.

Experiences from HEaD

A project has worked to strengthen students' sense of coherence in distance learning. The experiences show in particular the importance of so-called motivated meetings – collaborations and interactions that are integrated into teaching – to strengthen both learning and community in distance-based higher education.

An important insight from the project that is very relevant to other teachers is perhaps this:

Social cohesion in distance education is not primarily created through voluntary social activities, but through well-planned, meaningful and study-related meetings between students.

It is a very important lesson that can be applied in almost all online courses and programs, regardless of the subject.

Contact: Roger Edholm, Ulrika Lif

  1. Make the course environment predictable. Use consistent structures, templates, and ways of working.
  2. Gather important information in a few places. Reduce students' need to search.
  3. Create continuous forums for student influence. Seek feedback during the course.
  4. Build community through learning. Let interaction be a natural part of teaching.
  5. Plan for motivated meetings. Students meet when the meeting fulfills a clear function in their learning.

Develop the course together with the students

Try this

Five-minute dialogue in the middle of the course: Set aside five minutes and let the students anonymously answer the question of: What helps you learn? What makes your learning difficult? What should we continue with? Then give feedback on the answers at the next teaching session and tell them what changes you are making.

Experiences from HEaD

Based on the two projects DISA and Pedagogical Council with a focus on active learning , three transferable principles emerge that you as a teacher can use in your own course development: to structure the course for learning rather than schedule, to create continuous dialogue with and between students, and to involve students in the development of teaching. Below, these principles are gathered under three levels, from things that are easy to test directly to more long-term and program-wide development.

Contact: Ann T Ottestig, Lena Lundgren, Peter Jonriksson

  • Structure the course in Canvas based on the students' learning rather than just by schedule or weeks.
  • Shorten and clarify instructions so that students quickly understand what to do, why and when.
  • Create a simple question channel where students can ask questions and take part in each other's thoughts.
  • Include at least one active exercise per week that supports processing, reflection or collaboration.
  • Create opportunities for student dialogue, for example through short reconciliations, questions after elements or recurring feedback points.
  • Test a small-scale change with a student group before it is implemented more broadly.
  • Redesign parts of the course room together with students, such as structure, instructions, communication channels or support material. As a teacher, you will then gain an increased understanding of how students absorb important information in the best way.
  • Integrate activities more clearly with the examination so that students see connections between exercises, feedback and assessment. This can create an increased commitment to the learning activities of your students.
  • Create continuous dialogue with students and between students, also through complementary channels outside Canvas when it strengthens learning. Continuous dialogue between teachers and students creates a more open communication climate, which contributes to increased student engagement.
  • Use the students' experiences as a basis for ongoing adjustments during the course, not just afterwards. By learning more about how the students themselves view their learning, you as a teacher are given better conditions for course development.
  • Initiate a pedagogical council or a recurring student dialogue where students participate in the development of a course or programme. Through increased knowledge of how students learn best/prefer to learn, you as a teacher gain new and important insights for the planning of your teaching. An open communication climate and a more informal relationship between teachers and students contribute greatly to increased engagement among students. Working co-creatively in a pedagogical council develops the relationship with your students on a more long-term level.
  • Create a complementary digital environment when Canvas is not enough for the type of dialogue, collaboration or activity that teaching needs. The complementary digital channel can be seen as a way to create the conditions for a digital corridor conversation.
  • Work with programme-wide design where course rooms, communication and activities are connected across several courses.
  • Involve students in the development systematically, for example through co-creation, test groups or recurring reflection forums. The students' opinions are crucial here for you as a teacher to get such a good perspective on user-friendliness in the courses' learning environments. The students' (users') ideas and wishes may not be the same as your own. Dare to challenge the way you normally work.
  • Build a structure where experiences from student dialogue and course development are taken forward to collegial conversations and joint pedagogical development. This type of co-creative activity has been shown to create increased job satisfaction for both teachers and students.

The page was updated 10/29/2026

Content owner:

Avdelningen för forsknings‑ och utbildningsstöd (FUS)