"Strategies for faculty to engage students in an online environment."
Engaging students is not one size fits all, there are thousands of tools, activities and examples that you can try to create engagement in your online class. With that being said, the problem is usually deciding which tool to use and why. There are three ways students engage in an online course -
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Student to Student
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Faculty to Student
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Student to Content
With that in mind, the next step is to identify the course outcome and then decide on what type of methodology would engage and keep your student involved in their own learning journey. These list of resources are not suited for all disciplines, it will depend on your learning outcomes and which level of active learning (from above) you are seeking. This list was comprised through pilot testing and research that proves their effectiveness for particular subject matters.
Engaging by Design in Online Learning
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Respond, Discuss, Participate, Call, Give Rapid Feedback, Just-in-time (JIT) responses
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Gamification with leaderboards - John Keller's ARCS model
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Problem Based Learning (PBL), Mindmeister, VoiceThread, Dipity
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Flipped Classrooms, Hybrid Learning and/or Learning Communities
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Service Learning Opportunities
Engaging with Technology in Online Learning
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A-Ha Moments or Fuzzy Moments, using tools such as Padlet, Trello, iBrainstormer
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Microbursts, Small learning bursts 4-8 minutes, video feedback
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Students as VR creators, InstaVR, VRdirect, YouTube, Google Tours
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Artificial Intelligence (AI), Packback, Alexa
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Badges, Credly, Canva, Mozilla Backpack
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Synchronous, Zoom, Adobe Connect, Skype - etc.