Engaging Online Learners

Engaging Learners in an Online
Course: Success Factors
Zoraini Wati Abas, EdD
Director, Center for Learning, Teaching and Curriculum Development
Putera Sampoerna Foundation University Project
Jakarta, INDONESIA
zoraini@sampoernafoundation.org zoraini@gmail.com

Student Engagement
How do we know whether students
are engaged in their course?

4-7 Feb 2013 ZWAbas-eLI2013-Riyadh

Student Engagement
Is it important?


Student
Engagement

Course
Completion
(Good Grades)

Program
Completion
(Good Results)


ZWAbas-eLI2013-Riyadh
Student Engagement

4-7 Feb 2013
Literature Review

 Appleton, Christenson and
Furlong (2008) explains that
engagement has two or three
components such as positive
conduct, effort and
participation.

 Chen, Gonyea and Kuh (2008)
Student Engagement defines engagement as the
What does it mean? degree to which learners are
involved with their
educational activities and
that engagement is positively
linked to desired outcomes,
high grades, student
satisfaction, and
perseverance.


 Providing a learning-
centered approach (Hunt &
Chalmers, 2012)

 The facilitator needs to
provide effective
facilitation of learning
Student Engagement through new or innovative
What does it mean? ways.

 Social constructivist
approach works best –
collaboration between
learners in a learning
environment. Use of Web
2.0 tools


 Beer, Clark & Jones (2010).
Student engagement is
linked to undergraduate
academic
achievement, student
attribution, student
retention, student
Student Engagement motivation and
Why is it important? institutional success.

 Trowler (2010), “when
learners are
engaged…they are
shaping and leading their
own learning and
education.”


 Kuh (2003). “Student
engagement holds the
magic wand making it
possible for students to
succeed and develop their
potential.”

Student Engagement  Duffy, Korkmas, Dennis, et
Why is it important? al (2005), “students who
are more engaged learn
more”


 Ruey (2010), “when
learners feel involved and
engaged in the
course, they perform well
and the desired learning
objectives are achieved.

Student Engagement  Coates (2005), “student
Why is it important? engagement is directly or
indirectly related to
improvement in student
learning.”


Benefits

 Greater sense of ownership
over their learning

 Increased motivation

 Improved self-esteem

 Greater achievement

 Improved relationship with
peers and educators

 Increased self-efficacy


Trends
Welcome to higher education circa 2012,
where on many campuses, the stale,
passive lecture model is being replaced
by a more dynamic way of teaching and
learning—one in which students and
instructors collaborate in a give-and-
take fashion to “make meaning
together,”
- Tony O’Driscoll, a professor of business
administration at Duke.

Source: http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/how-
collaborative-learning-is-transforming-higher-education/


Student Engagement

4-7 Feb 2013
Course Design
Student Feedback (Impact)
Framework

Methodology
Case Study of a 100 pct Online Postgraduate Course

 Course Design
 Environment to support
social constructivist
learning
 Activities to support
student engagement

 Impact on student
engagement
 Student feedback
 What it means to be
engaged
 Indicators of student
engagement


How do we engage students

4-7 Feb 2013
in an online course?

HMID 6303
 http://hmid6303.ning.com

HMEF 5083
 http://hmef5083.ning.com

Ning as a Collaborative
Learning Platform


Student
Engagement using
Web 2.0 Tools
(Social Media)


Creation of a
learner-friendly
environment
Application of Provision of
COL model relevant and
• Teacher Presence meaningful
• Cognitive Presence learning
• Social Presence opportunities

Social
Constructivist
Learning

Framework for Student Engagement
Relationship between Success Factors


Community of
Inquiry (COI)
Model of
Engagement

Garrison, Anderson & Archer (2000)


4-7 Feb 2013

Findings and Discussions
Views of being engaged in learning
Indicators of student engagement

Questions to obtain students’ feedback

 What does “to be engaged in learning” mean?

 What are three factors that will encourage or show evidence
that the learners are engaged?


 “To be engaged in learning means to be
self motivated to learn.”

 “Learning engagement refers to a
situation where the instructor
encourages learners to take an active
role in their own learning by giving
them practical tasks that will promote
information processing and
understanding of concepts.”
Views of being
 “I think that this means for the learner
“engaged in learning” to be actively involved in all learning
activities through interacting with
instructor, peers, web, learning
material.”

 “It also means that the tasks must be
able to maintain the students interests
and so must include tasks designed to
challenge the student’s problem solving
abilities, reasoning, evaluation skills
and other cognitive abilities.”

 “Learning engagement involves
learners in authentic tasks to involve
problems solving.”


 self-motivation

 encouragement from the
instructor
 active role/involvement in
learning
Emerging themes –  practical tasks, helping
students to learn,
student engagement
 involvement with instructor,
peers, Web and learning
materials, authentic and
meaningful tasks to maintain
student interest where
student’s problem solving
abilities, reasoning,
evaluation skills and other
cognitive abilities are suitable
challenging.


 The learner interacts with the content and
discovers concepts and principles to apply

 The learner takes responsibility for
learning and collaborates with other
learners

 Actively participating and enthusiastic in
the lesson discussions, and posts, that is
students respond in a timely manner
Indicators (evidence) of  Completing the assignments
Student Engagement  Submitting assignments on time

 Completing the course online

 Obtaining good grades for the course

 Motivating others in class

 Getting involved in class discussions

 Doing self-learning where needed in order
to understand the subject matter even
more


Creation of a
learner-friendly
environment
Application of Provision of
COL model relevant and
• Teacher Presence meaningful
• Cognitive Presence learning
• Social Presence opportunities

Social
Constructivist
Learning

Factors to foster student engagement


Supporting Social Constructivist Learning

Description Steps Taken Evidence
Design of learning within a social Creation of: Learners are connected
context where social -Forums & with each other as they
interactions in forums and other -Online group discussed and interacted
online activities are predominant activities with each other online
learning events


Engaging Students in Forums (Applying
the COI Model for Student Engagement)

Ensuring teaching Facilitator visited and posted There were eight (8)
presence (interaction with comments, issues for discussion, discussion forums with
course facilitator) encouraging remarks, reminders, active interaction.
instructions or provided
motivation to students.

The facilitator provided learning
guidance, for example, in the
forum on assignments.

Generally, forums provided
issues for discussion (20 percent
of the course marks)



Ensuring cognitive Careful selection of resources Students were seen to
presence to be viewed or read combine their new learning
individually and then with previous knowledge
discussed. and experience.

Discussions were made
relevant and meaningful

Students were allowed
freedom of expression during
online discussions.



Ensuring social presence Creation of a pleasant, safe, Everyone was courteous
secure and respectful and respectful to each
environment where ideas other.
were shared and differing
opinions were shared and
discussed. The facilitator
ensured a positive
atmosphere to support online
interactions.


Creating a learner-friendly environment


Selecting a platform with a Selection of a social web site, Learners were seen to
learner-friendly interface and Ning, popular because of its be online more often
supportive of online group friendly interface and easy
compared to when
interactions. navigability that supports learning
via group interactions and using other platforms.
collaborative activities.

Ning supports:
forum discussions, chats, RSS
feeds, embedding of videos, and
the like.
Learners were encouraged to
upload their photos to increase
the human element


Providing relevant & meaningful learning
opportunities
Designing (a) relevant and Students were required to read/view, Students were actively posting
meaningful learning tasks, analyze, give feedback and opinions in based on their reading of the
and (b) provision of learning relation to his/her personal or work textbook, The World is Open,
activities using meaningful experience. other readings and selected
learning resources. videos.
Learners were assessed based on two
assignments and forum participation: Students reported that the
a report on current trends and issues, book was not only informative
based on readings and discussions to but also interesting to read.
demonstrate understanding of the
trends and issues in instructional
technology
a paper based on learning
technologies in the open world with
the development of a demonstrator
application of the selected learning
technology(ies)
Forum discussions were also
evaluated and comprised 20 percent
4-7 Feb 2013 of the course marks. ZWAbas-eLI2013-Riyadh

Gaining of
Knowledge,
Teaching of Content Understanding,
Skill and
Experience


Gaining
Engaging Students in Using Knowledge,
Content in Problem Understanding,
Solving/Challenging Situations Skill and
Experience

• Personalizing
Learning
• Meaningful
Learning


Authentic Learning

Problem-based Learning

Project-Based Learning
Collaborative Learning

Borderless Learning

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)


Summary & Conclusion

4-7 Feb 2013

 Despite very few learners, they
were actively engaged during
course, the online discussions
with the facilitator and peers,
as well as involved with the
learning tasks and the course
assignments.

What can we  All learners submitted their
assignments and completed
conclude? the course successfully.
Design of an online learning  Factors supporting student
environment via a Web 2.0 platform engagement
that supports social constructivist  COI engagement model for
online discussions,
learning which in turn provides a
 Learner-friendly online
learning-centered approach environment
 Relevant and meaningful
learning materials and
activities


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Email: zoraini@gmail.com


Thank you for your attention


Engaging Online Learners

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