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Enhancing student engagement has been a goal of increasing importance in higher education.  This may be especially valuable in online courses, where face-to-face interactions and synchronous activities are often minimal or nonexistent. Students are thought to be engaged when they view course activities as meaningful, persist in the face of difficulties or obstacles, and wish to learn to achieve mastery of the material (Bomia et al., 1997; Schlecty, 1994). Given the importance of student engagement for effective teaching, it is important for instructors and course designers to understand the factors that foster engagement within the learning environment.The present study sought to measure and compare student satisfaction and engagement in online vs. face-to-face sections of Physiological Psychology taught in Spring and Fall 2015. An end of semester survey, adapted from the literature (Dixson, 2010; Ouimet & Smallwood, 2005), included 18 questions relevant to learner satisfaction, motivation and engagement.  The preliminary data analysis was based on Spring 2015 data collected from 56 students total (22 online, 34 face-to-face).  The findings indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between the online and face-to-face sections for student learning satisfaction and overall engagement levels. Results suggest that online teaching and learning can be comparable to the face-to-face environment on these parameters. More complete analysis of the data from the Spring, Summer, and Fall 2015 semesters, as well as a discussion of implications for course design, will be presented.  Faculty and course designers will learn about strategies for measuring and promoting student engagement within their own courses.

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Regardless of the discipline, an effective instructional design is critical for development of a high quality online course. Instructional design involves a closed cycle that includes task analysis, design, development, implement, and evaluation. This presentation will demonstrate a showcase of the development of a fully-online course, Physiological Psychology (PSYC 372). This showcase will explain how the lesson was tested in a formative evaluation during the development phase as well as evaluated by the students who took it in a fully online setting. In order to understand how students had learned, a survey which included ten questions using a four-point Likert scale and three open-ended questions was delivered to collect students' feedback on their learning. The data was analyzed and used as an input to support the design criteria and for the revision of the course design.

Most learner analysis focuses on students' demographics and previous knowledge and experiences, but how those factors are associated with instructional considerations are still inconclusive. Instructors need effective instructional guidance to design and manage online courses, so that learners who have diverse backgrounds can be supported. This study presents an approach of analyzing learning characteristics with the development and validation of the Learning Traits Questionnaire (LTQ). The five learning characteristics—Group Preference, Instructional Support, Procrastination, Computer Competency, and Learning Confidence—could be critical factors for instructors to consider when they analyze the targeted learners.