engaging learners in an online course: success factors

Engaging Learners in an Online Course: Success

FactorsZoraini Wati Abas, EdD

Director, Center for Learning, Teaching and Curriculum Development

Putera Sampoerna Foundation University ProjectJakarta, [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

ZWAbas-eLI2013-Riyadh

Student EngagementHow do we know that students are engaged in their course?

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Student EngagementIs it important?

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Student Engageme

nt

Course Completion

(Good Grades)

Program Completion

(Good Results)

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Student EngagementLiterature Review 4-

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Student Engagement

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) defines engagement as the 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.

What does it mean?

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

The facilitator needs to provide effective facilitation of learning through new or innovative ways.

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

What does it mean?

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Student Engagement


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

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

Why is it important?

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Student Engagement


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

Duffy, Korkmas, Dennis, et al (2005), “students who are more engaged learn more”


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Student Engagement


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

Coates (2005), “student engagement is directly or indirectly related to improvement in student learning.”


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Student Engagement


Benefits Greater sense of

ownership over their learning

Increased motivation Improved self-esteem Greater achievement Improved relationship

with peers and educators Increased self-efficacy

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Trends

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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/

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Student EngagementCourse DesignStudent Feedback (Impact)Framework

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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

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http://hmid6303.ning.com/

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How do we engage students in an online course?

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Ning as a Collaborative Learning Platform

HMID 6303 http://hmid6303.ning.com

HMEF 5083 http://hmef5083.ning.com

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http://hmef5083.ning.com/


Student Engagement

using Web 2.0 Tools (Social

Media)


Framework for Student Engagement

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Social Constructivist Learning

Application of COL model• Teacher Presence

• Cognitive Presence

• Social Presence

Creation of a learner-friendly

environment Provision of relevant and meaningful

learning opportunities

Relationship between Success Factors


Community of Inquiry (COI) Model of Engagement

Garrison, Anderson & Archer (2000)

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Findings and Discussions

Views of being engaged in learningIndicators of student engagement

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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?

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Views of being “engaged in learning”

“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.”

“I think that this means for the learner 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.”

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Emerging themes – student engagement

self-motivation encouragement from the

instructor active role/involvement in

learning practical tasks, helping

students to learn, 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.

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Indicators (evidence) of Student Engagement

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

Completing the assignments 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

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Factors to foster student engagement

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Social Constructivist Learning

Application of COL model• Teacher Presence

• Cognitive Presence

• Social Presence

Creation of a learner-friendly

environment Provision of relevant and meaningful

learning opportunities


Supporting Social Constructivist Learning

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Description Steps Taken EvidenceDesign of learning within a social context where social interactions in forums and other online activities are predominant learning events

Creation of:-Forums &-Online group activities

Learners are connected with each other as they discussed and interacted with each other online


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

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Description Steps Taken Evidence

Ensuring teaching presence (interaction with course facilitator)

Facilitator visited and posted comments, issues for discussion, encouraging remarks, reminders, 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)

There were eight (8) discussion forums with active interaction.



Ensuring cognitive presence

Careful selection of resources to be viewed or read individually and then discussed.

Discussions were made relevant and meaningful Students were allowed freedom of expression during online discussions.

Students were seen to combine their new learning with previous knowledge and experience.



Ensuring social presence

Creation of a pleasant, safe, secure and respectful environment where ideas were shared and differing opinions were shared and discussed. The facilitator ensured a positive atmosphere to support online interactions.

Everyone was courteous and respectful to each other.


Creating a learner-friendly environment

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Selecting a platform with a learner-friendly interface and supportive of online group interactions.

Selection of a social web site, Ning, popular because of its friendly interface and easy navigability that supports learning via group interactions and 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

Learners were seen to be online more often compared to when using other platforms.


Providing relevant & meaningful learning opportunities

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Description Steps Taken EvidenceDesigning (a) relevant and meaningful learning tasks, and (b) provision of learning activities using meaningful learning resources.

Students were required to read/view, analyze, give feedback and opinions in relation to his/her personal or work experience. Learners were assessed based on two assignments and forum participation: a report on current trends and issues,

based on readings and discussions to 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 of the course marks.

Students were actively posting based on their reading of the textbook, The World is Open, other readings and selected videos.

Students reported that the book was not only informative but also interesting to read.


Teaching of ContentGaining of

Knowledge, Understanding, Skill and Experience


Engaging Students in Using Content in

Problem Solving/Challenging

Situations

• Personalizing Learning

• Meaningful Learning

Gaining Knowledge,

Understanding, Skill and Experience


Authentic Learning

Problem-based Learning

Collaborative LearningProject-Based Learning

Borderless Learning

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

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Summary & Conclusion

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What can we conclude?

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.

All learners submitted their assignments and completed the course successfully.

Factors supporting student engagement COI engagement model for

online discussions, Learner-friendly online

environment Relevant and meaningful

learning materials and activities

Design of an online learning environment via a Web 2.0 platform that supports social constructivist learning which in turn provides a learning-centered approach

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http://www.learningtheoriesprofile.com/images/diagram.gif4-7 Feb 2013


Skype: zoraini Slideshare: zorainiTwitter: zorainiwatiabashttp://www.facebook.com/zoraini Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/zorainiEmail: [email protected]

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Thank you for your attention

engaging learners in an online course: success factors

Documents

student learning

student attribution

student retention

student motivation

student satisfaction

learning environment

riyadhstudent engagementbeer

riyadhstudent engagementruey