A balancing act: a window into online student engagement experiences

Abstract

This article reports on a qualitative study which explored online student engagement experiences in a higher education institution. There are very few studies providing in-depth perspectives on the engagement experiences of online students. The project adopted a case study approach, following 24 online students over one academic year. The setting for the study was an undergraduate online Humanities programme at Dublin City University. The research question for the study was: What themes are central to online student engagement experiences? Data was collected from participant-generated learning portfolios and semi-structured interviews and analysed following a data-led thematic approach. The five central themes that make up the study’s findings highlight key issues of students’ sense of community, their support networks, balancing study with life, confidence, and their learning approaches. The findings of this study indicate that successful online student engagement was influenced by a number of psychosocial factors such as peer community, an engaging online teacher, and confidence and by structural factors such as lifeload and course design. One limitation of the study is that it is a relatively small, qualitative study, its findings provide insights into how online degrees can support online students to achieve successful and engaging learning experiences.

Integrating students’ perspectives about online learning: a hierarchy of factors

“…Such studies, however, cannot provide the overall context and comparative importance. Some studies have examined the overall learning experience of students with exploratory lists, but have mixed non-quality factors with quality of teaching factors making it difficult to discern the instructor’s versus contextual roles in quality (e.g., Asoodar, Vaezi, & Izanloo, 2016 ; Bollinger & Martindale, 2004 ; Farrell & Brunton, 2020 ; Hong, 2002 ; Song, Singleton, Hill, & Koh, 2004 ; Sun, Tsai, Finger, Chen, & Yeh, 2008 ). The application of technology adoption studies also fall into this category by essentially aggregating all teaching quality in the single category of performance ( Al-Gahtani, 2016 ; Artino, 2010 ).…”

Multidimensional research on university engagement using a mixed method approach

“…Therefore, more research is needed related to online teaching (e.g. studies show that engagement decreases in online teaching compared to face-to-face teaching; Farrell & Brunton, 2020) but also related to the use of social networks and digital ecosystems to provide opportunities to increase engagement (Ansari & Khan, 2020). Future research should investigate this field which, due to its complexity, deserves a research framework in itself (Bond et al, 2020).…”

Exploring students' learning experience in online education. Analysis and proposals based on the case of a Spanish open learning university

“…This is important if we take into account the multiple transformations that have occurred in the educational eld during the last decades (Lee, 2019). In fact, the gure of the student in virtual environments as an apprentice with a higher level of autonomy, not only emerges as a consequence of the development and use of digital technologies in educational contexts, but also emerges from previous efforts aimed at positioning the student as a leading actor in teaching and learning processes, and as a result strengthens their autonomous learning (Farrell & Brunton, 2020). Pallof & Pratt (2013), for example, suggest the pro le of the successful online student, that although emergent and mediated through the use of computers, is marked by the abilities and skills to manage the tools and resources of these learning environments.…”