Engagement Matters: Student Perceptions on the Importance of Engagement Strategies in the Online Learning Environment.

By Florence Martin, Doris U. Bolliger. 2018

1,218 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Student engagement increases student satisfaction, enhances student motivation to learn, reduces the sense of isolation, and improves student performance in online courses. This survey-based research study examines student perception on various engagement strategies used in online courses based on Moore’s interaction framework. One hundred and fifty five students completed a 38-item survey on learner-to-learner, learner-to-instructor, and learner-to-content engagement strategies. Learner-to-instructor engagement strategies seemed to be most valued among the three categories. Icebreaker/introduction discussions and working collaboratively using online communication tools was rated the most beneficial engagement strategy in the learner-to-learner category, whereas sending regular announcements or e-mail reminders and providing grading rubrics for all assignments was rated the most beneficial in learner to instructor category. In the student-content category, students mentioned working on real world projects and having discussions with structured or guiding questions were the most beneficial. This study also analyzed age, gender, and online learning years of experience differences on their perception of engagement strategies. The results of the study have implications for online instructors, instructional designers, and administrators who wish to enhance engagement in the online courses.

Subfields: Developmental and Educational Psychology, Education, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/8e6000f1032dc09c0d91e5ac9a3f3f968ec1f336

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Developmental and Educational Psychology

1. Florence Martin
2. Doris U. Bolliger
3. Zhe Zhang
4. Ido Roll
5. Hossein Mohammadi

In Education

1. Florence Martin
2. Doris U. Bolliger
3. Zhe Zhang
4. Ido Roll
5. Kiran Budhrani
6. Saleh Al-Salman
7. Ahmad S. Haider

In Social Psychology

1. Florence Martin
2. Doris U. Bolliger
3. Saleh Al-Salman
4. Ahmad S. Haider

Citations in the corpus

• Award-winning faculty online teaching practices: Course design, assessment and evaluation, and facilitation (2019, background): “Martin and Bolliger (2018) found that the instructor sending/posting regular announcements or email reminders was a communication strategy that was rated very high by the students as important for their learning.”
• Students’ Perception towards E-Learning during COVID-19 Pandemic in India: An Empirical Study (2020, background): “The results of the study have implications for online instructors, instructional designers, and administrators who wish to enhance engagement in the online courses [24].”
• Instructor and student perceptions of online student engagement strategies (2018, methodology): “Some online instructors, particularly those new to online teaching, may not use the strategies listed in the OESQ; therefore, their perceptions may be different from more experienced instructors who use several strategies to engage students online.”
• Student engagement in online learning in Latin American higher education during the COVID‐19 pandemic: A systematic review (2022, background): “There is substantial evidence that student engagement is associated with positive learning outcomes, such as good academic performance, self-regulated learning and well-being (Lin et al., 2019; Martin & Bolliger, 2018; Zhang, 2017).”
• COVID-19 and E-Learning: the Challenges of Students in Tertiary Institutions (2020, background): “Martin and Boliger (Martin & Bolliger, 2018) found that icebreaker / introduction and working with online communication tools were the most important engagement among learners while sending reminders and providing rubrics for assignments constituted the most important benefit in learner-instructor…”
• The impact of artificial intelligence on learner–instructor interaction in online learning (2021, background): “Instructors can improve student engagement and learning by providing a variety of communication channels, support, encouragement, and timely feedback (Martin et al., 2018).”
• School Engagement (2021, background): “For this reason, activities such as studentfaculty interactions, peer-to-peer collaboration, and active learning are considered important in face-to-face and online learning environments [11-13]”