Increase Engagement and Learning

Abstract

With the infusion of educational technology and internet access into classrooms, including 1:1 laptops, iPads, and Chromebooks, educators must realize the importance of visuals for their online course content. Today's students are growing up in an internet-forward culture. Social media is an important part of how students connect with their friends, peers, and the world. Their interactions use accompanying memes, emojis, and GIFs (graphics interchange format) that are used to describe and supplement events happening “IRL”—in real life. Just as we use technology to enhance the learning experience in the classroom, it is perhaps equally as important to speak students' language to improve both student engagement and learning while using those devices in the classroom. This chapter reviews research concerning visual use in course content, discusses visuals in the context of universal design for learning (UDL), provides tips on for using visual appeal to improve engagement and learning, briefly discusses the topic of copyright and fair use, and gives examples of visuals including GIFs.