Various researches on the relationship between student engagement and
learning reveal that engagement is a predictor of academic achievement, student
performance, and educational development. A student’s performance remains a top
priority for educators, and engaging students is a challenge faced by lecturers
worldwide. Many efforts on how higher education might further inculcate and
strengthen student engagement have been explored. This is truer when emphasizing the
virtual learning platforms, especially during the actual COVID-19 pandemic, which has
stimulated and propelled the virtual classes’ platform. However, among the tripartite
nlms influencing students’ engagement in the virtual learning platforms, the students,
technology, and the instructor, lecturers received little emphasis in the virtual learning
debate. The present research focuses on certain basic instructor skills that might help
overcome the students’ disengagement issue to address this gap. Instead of dealing with
the condition of students’ disengagement in virtual classes, this review tackles the roots
of the instructor’s mission and fundamental role, which can be traced back to the
primary aim of delivering knowledge, hence, related to the “theory of knowledge.”
Also, efficiently communicating knowledge is related to certain basic communication
skills. Hence, the present research is designed with two main objectives. To advance
the debate on overcoming students’ disengagement in virtual classrooms by
emphasizing the crucial role of basic instructor’s skills and implementing strategies that
support student engagement by digging in both the theory of knowledge and some
basic communication skills.
Keywords: Communication Skills, COVID-19, E-Learning, Digital Classrooms,
Higher Education, Internet, LMS, Online Classes, Online Courses, Online
Teaching, Online Learning, Online Platform, Pandemic, Pedagogy, Student
Engagement, Technology, Theory of Knowledge, Virtual Classes, Virtual
Learning, Virtual Platforms.