Supporting Learning Engagement with Online Students

Abstract

University students are increasingly demanding that traditionally taught courses are converted to an online platform. While quality standards are in place for the format and organization of online courses, professors often are left wondering what activities contribute to learning engagement for their online students. The research question driving this study was, what activities contribute to learning engagement for online students? To investigate this question, an online survey was conducted in one state university of all students taking an online course during the spring semester. With responses from 417 students and using three standardized scale variables for learning engagement, as well as two open-ended questions, course components related to strong learning engagement were identified and examined. Initial findings indicated a statistically significant moderate correlation of learning engagement with the use of higher-order learning and reflective and integrative learning techniques. Specifically, students who reported being highly engaged connected ideas from other courses, changed their understanding of a topic or concept, found connections between their learning and societal problems, and had fun. A regression model using these variables, along with control variables of student age, gender, and out-of-school work, resulted in an R2 of 0.484, suggesting that almost half of the variance in learning engagement can be explained via this model. Further analysis of the qualitative data identified certain aspects of online discussions and assignments as engaging, such as discussions and interactive assignments that are not merely “fun” from a student perspective but also integrate previous learning and connect to current social issues. This includes prompting students with thought-provoking questions that relate to “real-world” situations and inviting students to share diverse opinions as well as develop personal perspectives.

A Comparison of Faculty and Graduate Students’ Perceptions of Engaging Online Courses: A Mixed-Method Study

“…Essentially, any strategy used to assist in making students feel engaged and connected with each other and the instructor (Lowenthal, 2010) is considered social presence. Both student-student interaction and student-instructor interaction can influence students' engagement in online learning (Buelow et al, 2018;Purarjomandlangrudi et al, 2016). Specifically, they are more engaged in learning when able to interact with the instructor and other students (Dixon, 2010;Holzweiss et al, 2014).…”

“…First, although social presence was important to both students and faculty, students seemed to put a greater emphasis on student-student interaction whereas faculties were more concerned with faculty-student interaction. Research has found that both types of interactions are important when it comes to online course engagement (Buelow et al, 2018;Purarjomandlangrudi et al, 2016) with some research pointing to students valuing student-instructor relationships over student-student relationships (Martin & Bolliger, 2018). Future research should seek to better understand the specific roles these different relationships play in creating engaging online learning environments and how to best foster them throughout an online course.…”

The Role of Existing Regulation and Discretion in Harmonising Non-Financial Disclosure

“…A non-traditional student is between the ages of 20-65, has several social roles in life and might be working full time. Online learning provides these students with greater access to formal learning environments from which they are physically distant and the flexibility to start their learning journey at any time while being able to work and study (Buelow et al, 2018). With the pandemic, online learning provides all students with the ability to continue their studies, so that they can complete their programmes within the original time-frame and with minimal interruption.…”

“…Engaging students, whether in a face-to-face classroom or through an online programme, is considered a critical factor in the academic success of students (Buelow et al, 2018). Learner engagement occurs through their behaviours, their emotions and their cognition (Astin, 1984).…”

“…In online programmes, engagement can be enhanced by three 'presences': social presence, teaching presence and cognitive presence (Garrison & Arbaugh, 2007). These presences must be effectively incorporated into online programmes because all three are interrelated and rely heavily on how students perceive them for engagement to occur (Buelow et al, 2018). Redmond et al (2018) proposed an engagement framework for online teaching and learning which combines these presences into five types of engagement: social engagement, cognitive engagement, behavioural engagement, collaborative engagement and emotional engagement.…”