Beyond the Teams Lecture: Interactive Strategies for Student Engagement in Live Online Higher Education

Abstract

The rapid adoption of live online teaching in higher education has heightened long-standing concerns about student engagement, particularly in synchronous environments where passive, lecture-centric pedagogies often persist. While platforms such as Microsoft Teams have ensured continuity and access, they have also revealed limitations of traditional teaching methods when applied directly to online classes. This paper presents a structured literature review exploring interactive teaching strategies that enhance student engagement in live online higher education contexts. The review synthesises findings from empirical and conceptual studies published between 2019 and 2025, examining behavioural, cognitive, and emotional dimensions. The findings indicate that engagement is strengthened not by technology alone, but by intentional pedagogical design and a strong teaching presence. Interactive strategies identified in the literature include breakout room discussions, real-time polling, collaborative digital tools, scenario-based learning, peer interaction, structured questioning, and formative feedback practices. The review further highlights that effective engagement strategies are most successful when aligned with clear learning outcomes, supported by lecturer facilitation skills, and embedded within coherent instructional design frameworks. Persistent challenges identified in the literature include lecturer preparedness, digital fatigue, uneven student participation, cognitive overload, and limitations in institutional support for online pedagogy. This review contributes to higher education teaching practice by consolidating evidence-based strategies to support meaningful student engagement in synchronous online classrooms and identifying areas for future research.