Engagement and Online Learning

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Engagement and Online Learning

• Iris Stovall, Illinois Virtual Campus
• COPE-L
• University of Illinois at Springfield
• January 26, 2007

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What is Student Engagement?

• Time on task?
• Students willingness to participate in class
  activities
• Cognitive, behavioral, affective indicators

http//www.ericdigests.org/2005-2/engagement.html
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What do Instructors Observe?

• Those that are engaged show sustained behavioral
  involvement in learning activities accompanied by
  a positive emotional tone
• Those that are not engaged are disaffected,
  passive, do not try hard, and give up easily when
  faced with challenges

http//www.ericdigests.org/2005-2/engagement.html
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Who Benefits from Engagement?

• Everyone
• Those students who come to college less well
  prepared academically or from historically
  underrepresented groups tend to benefit from
  engagement in educationally purposeful activities
  even more than their peers do.

http//www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/11/13/nsse
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Measuring Engagement

• National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)
  focused on distance education for 2006
• Based on student questionnaires (self reporting)
• Level of challenge
• Active and collaborative learning
• Student-faculty interaction
• Enriching educational experiences
• Supportive environment
• UIS students participate

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Measuring Engagement

• Distance learning students outperform or perform
  on par with on-campus students on measures
  including level of academic challenge
  student-faculty interactions enriching
  educational experiences and higher-order,
  integrative and reflective learning and gains in
  practical competence, personal and social
  development, and general education. They
  demonstrate lower levels of engagement when it
  comes to active and collaborative learning.

http//www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/11/13/nsse
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Measuring Engagement

• Other ways to measure student engagement include
  instructor ratings and checklists

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Why Do Students Engage?

• Motivation, either extrinsic or intrinsic, plays
  a large role.
• Intrinsically motivated students earn higher
  grades and test scores, are better adjusted to
  school, are more likely to feel confident about
  their ability to learn new material, are more
  likely to engage in tasks that are moderately
  challenging, retain information better and are
  more likely to be life long learners.

http//www.nwrel.org/request/oct00/textonly.html
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Motivating Online Students

• Part art, part science

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Science of Motivation Building Course Structure

• Ensure expectations are clear and consistent
• Along with feedback, provide opportunity to
  discuss how assignments were graded
• Respond positively to student questions
• Make sure large, complex tasks are broken into
  smaller, achievable components

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Science of Motivation Building Course Structure

• Promote mastery learning, when possible
• Provide feedback on assignments as soon as
  possible
• Evaluate students according to your rubric or
  standards, and not by comparing their work to
  that of other students

http//www.nwrel.org/request/oct00/textonly.html
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Science of Motivation Course Content

• Assignments should contain real-world aspects
• Help students to see ways the assignment relates
  to work or life experiences
• Allow students to choose
• Arouse curiosity about the subject
• Assign collaborative projects where students can
  share what they know with other students

http//www.nwrel.org/request/oct00/textonly.html
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Art of Motivation

• If the science is in place, you are freer to
  experiment
• Be who you are
• Show your passion
• Become an emotional writer

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Determinants of Engagement Study

• Graduate students in Information Systems Course
• Examined asynchronous discussion forum messages
• What interactions generate the most student
  engagement?
• Counted the number of times a particular message
  was read

http//www.ce.ucf.edu/asp/aln/cfp/presentations/11
62852287092.ppt
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Determinants of Engagement Study

• Messages categorized
• Initiator
• Facilitator (middle-man with social and teaching
  behavior types)
• Contributor
• Knowledge-elicitor (question asker)
• Vicarious-acknowledger (me-too)
• Complicator (reframer)
• Closer (synthesizer)
• Passive Learner (freeloader)

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Message Type With Most Engagement

• Knowledge-elicitor messages generated 24 reads
  per message versus 16.8 reads for all messages
• Knowledge-elicitor students generated engagement
  within the class

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Other Factors Related to Engagement?

• Length of message - no
• Frequency of posting - no
• Position of message no (for messages posted
  early)
• Type of participant - no

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Implications for Online Courses

• Students may value knowledge of and learn from
  other students
• Students peers can stimulate engagement (not
  only the instructor)
• Instructors should model best practices in the
  discussion forum and discourage me too posts

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Engagement

• Motivation is key
• Build your course based on what is know about the
  science of design
• Become an artist in the online classroom