Beyond busy work: rethinking the measurement of online student engagement

Improving Student Retention and Success Within the Context of Complex Lives and Diverse Circumstances

“…Similar findings have emerged from another longitudinal research project (Dyment et al 2020;Muir et al 2019;) in which nine teachereducation students studying online with a large regional Australian university were followed across the length of a full semester, with fortnightly interviews and weekly surveys monitoring their engagement with their studies over this time. Consistent with the general demographics of the online cohort, these students were all matureaged, with family and paid work responsibilities.…”

“…There are now likely to be more students within the online postgraduate cohort who are not living with the other types of responsibilities that frequently conflict with or need to take priority over their studies. Nevertheless, these findings have been supported by longitudinal research with online students at a large Australian university (Dyment et al 2020;Muir et al 2019;, which similarly found that the students' 'work/life commitments and events played a role in students' capacity to remain engaged with their studies' (Muir et al 2019: 269). In the lives of these students, 'family and work must come first… and study has to fit around these primary responsibilities' (Stone et al 2019: 88).…”

Revealing Impact Factors on Student Engagement: Learning Analytics Adoption in Online and Blended Courses in Higher Education

“…Relevant literature highlights that engagement is a multifaceted construct [28]. It is, therefore, of great importance to examine this concept from multiple aspects, for instance, emotional [29], cultural [30], and cognitive and social engagement [18,31], as well as student perceptions on their own engagement [32]. In addition, it is important to collect qualitative data, for instance, examining the content of posts from discussion boards, which will provide clearer insights on students' level of understanding and knowledge gained in the subject.…”

Reimagining the Higher Education Student

“…This work imagines the online student as an empowered constructivist learner, actively engaging with their peers to support their learning. However, at the same time and in line with the above, online students are frequently positioned as different from 'traditional' on-campus students both as a result of age and socio-economic background and in terms of the supports required to maintain engagement and retention (see Dyment et al, 2020). And as Shumar and Wright (2016) have argued, online learning offers opportunities for enhanced interaction and co-construction but can also be used in ways which are more about control and the effective transmission of predefined content.…”

“…Online learning has become ubiquitous in higher education, and those working in the online space have been highly influenced by constructivist approaches (Selwyn, 2011), but also by the sense of the online cohort as 'non-traditional' and requiring additional supports to engage (e.g. Dyment et al, 2020). The case study initiative in question took a particular form where curriculum was developed by academics but then delivered via teaching assistants employed by an online program management provider.…”