A Systematic Review of Machine Learning Techniques for Predicting Student Engagement in Higher Education Online Learning

This special issue of Student Success celebrates the work of Professor Ella Kahu and her substantial contribution to the advancement of our collective understanding of student engagement. In June 2024 Professors Karen Nelson and Chi Baik, and Dr Cat Picton sat down with Ella for a reflective conversation about her work, and additional insights in her theorising and research on student experience and engagement. In this special issue, we present the interview transcript in three parts and showcase Ella’s key publications. Understanding student engagement has become essential for retention and success in higher education. This first part of the issue brings together three influential articles that have contributed to advancing our conceptualisation of student engagement. The first article, Framing Student Engagement in Higher Education (Kahu, 2013), offers a foundational review of prevailing perspectives on student engagement and proposing a comprehensive framework to address existing definitional and conceptual gaps. Building on this foundation, the second article by Ella and Karen Nelson, Student Engagement in the Educational Interface: Understanding the Mechanisms of Student Success (Kahu & Nelson, 2018) introduces the “educational interface”—a metaphor for the space where student and institutional factors interact, affecting engagement. This article refines our understanding of engagement by identifying key psychosocial constructs that mediate this interaction. The third article, Pathways to Engagement: A Longitudinal Study of the First-Year Student Experience in the Educational Interface, a collaborative study by Ella Kahu, Karen Nelson, and Catherine Picton, (Kahu et al., 2020) employs longitudinal research to trace the first-year student experience within this educational interface, providing empirical support for the framework and underscoring the importance of self-efficacy, belonging, emotions, and wellbeing in the engagement process. Together, these articles deepen our understanding of the theoretical and practical aspects of student engagement, providing educators and policymakers with insights to shape more effective engagement strategies. Journal articles: Kahu, E. R. (2013). Framing student engagement in higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 38(5), 758-773. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2011.598505 Kahu, E. R., & Nelson, K. (2018) Student engagement in the educational interface: Understanding the mechanisms of student success. Higher Education Research & Development, 37(1), 58-71. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2017.1344197 Kahu, E. R., & Picton, C., & Nelson, K. (2020). Pathways to engagement: A longitudinal study of the first-year student experience in the educational interface. Higher Education, 79(4), 657-673. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-019-00429-w

ABSTRACTThis article reports on a systematic review of research into student retention and student engagement in higher education (HE). It discusses the origins and meaning of these terms, their relation to each other, their application and practice, and the issues and critiques that have arisen. The two concepts are seen as alternative ways of seeing and researching the same underlying issue. While student engagement is a more recent focus for research, it has now overtaken student retention in importance. As the responsibility for the financing of HE has shifted from the state to the student, so the understanding of student retention and engagement has shifted from being the student’s responsibility to that of the higher education institution (HEI).

Student engagement in higher education has been a topic of discussion for decades, as student engagement directly indexes student retention, achievement, and career development. While previous research emphasizes the importance of effective teaching practices to increase student engagement in higher education, faculty and staff report institutional and professional challenges to increase interactions with students. This study highlights cases of successful teacher-student relationships that engendered positive student emotions and advanced student engagement in higher education settings. Using the thank-you note messages provided by students in a Thank-a-Teacher initiative, data were analyzed qualitatively through the theoretical principles of humanizing pedagogy (del Carmen Salazar, 2013). The findings indicate that the enactment of humanizing pedagogy through conveying emotions and forming positive teacher-student relationships made a meaningful impact on student motivation, engagement, and growth. Implications for the transformation and liberation of higher education through affect-driven pedagogy are discussed.

Student engagement in higher education is a complex construct that encompasses the active participation, involvement, and investment of students in their learning experiences. However, foreign students, who bring unique cultural, linguistic, and social backgrounds, face distinct challenges and experiences in adapting to higher education environments. This research aimed to fill a practical research gap by exploring how foreign undergraduate students in Finland perceive student engagement and motivation in higher education. Moreover, it sought to advance the ongoing discussion about student engagement in academia. This inductive research adopted a qualitative research framework and gathered interview data with foreign degree students in Finland. The semi-structured interviews with foreign undergraduate students were analyzed thematically and yielded four primary themes. First, the theme of peer interaction and cultural stereotypes, followed by the second theme, which revolves around integration challenges. The third theme highlights challenges viewed as opportunities, and finally, the theme of institutional support. Moreover, the study contributes to the body of knowledge by providing valuable insights about a group of students that is often marginalized. The article concludes by providing implications for research and practice. Received: 3 December 2023 | Revised: 8 January 2024 | Accepted: 18 January 2024 Conflicts of Interest The author declares that he has no conflicts of interest to this work. Data Availability Statement The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions. Author Contribution Statement Kevin Fuchs: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data Curation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition.

Often, student engagement in higher education (HE) is viewed from a structural perspective, which reduces the role of student agency. This mixed methods study thus focuses on investigating what engages students in HE through the lens of self-determination theory (SDT), in order to better understand the internal processes of engagement in individual students. In Phase 1, through a survey distributed to 838 students in four higher education institutions in Malaysia, it was revealed that perceived sense of autonomy, competence and belonging provided a crucial framework for understanding what is important for student engagement in HE. Further analysis revealed significant differences between what students believed as important for engagement, and what they actually do (actions), affirming how engagement is invariably a joint product of student motivation and the availability of support in the HE context. Conclusions from this study highlighted the importance of establishing the basic psychological needs of SDT, namely; competency, autonomy and relatedness in HE in order to create a supportive and conducive learning environment in HE for enhancing and sustaining student engagement. Implications and limitations of the findings are discussed.

This report describes a participatory evaluation of a postgraduate course delivered at the University of Winchester in the UK. The PGCert/MA in Student Engagement in Higher Education utilized sector-leading practices and research to explore student engagement in contemporary higher education. As co-creation, co-design, and staff-student partnerships are integral concepts within student engagement scholarship and practice, a congruent participatory evaluation of the PGCert/MA was conducted. This approach utilized an Advisory Group of current students and graduates to co-construct a Theory of Change, design data-gathering methods, and support the synthesis of findings and associated recommendations. This report provides details of the stages of this evaluation and the participatory activities which were designed and delivered. In addition to providing a robust conclusion on the process, impact, and outcomes of the course, this report discusses the benefits and challenges of participatory evaluation.

BackgroundResearch on student engagement has garnered significant interest from educators and practitioners because of its direct impact on academic success and achievement. Engaged students tend to perform better academically and exhibit fewer undesirable study behaviors, thereby enhancing academic outcomes.ObjectiveThis systematic literature review consolidates research on the impact of perceived teacher support on student engagement in higher education. This study emphasizes the association between teacher support in improving students’ academic performance, motivation, and retention. Furthermore, the review explores key theoretical frameworks, such as self-determination theory and social cognitive theory, alongside methodological tools such as measurement instruments and statistical analyses. The goal is to equip psychologists and educational researchers with insights into the relevant frameworks, tools, and methods for advancing future studies within the context of higher education.MethodsThis study followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology. We conducted a comprehensive search for academic studies published in English within databases such as APA PsycNet, Scopus, ERIC, EBSCOHost, ProQuest, and PubMed to identify eligible studies published between 2014 and 2024.ResultsA review of 13 selected articles revealed that both students’ personal characteristics and school environment factors mediate and moderate the relationship between perceived teacher support and student engagement. The students’ personal characteristics factors include self-efficacy, the fulfillment of psychological needs, and motivation, whereas school environment factors involve the learning environment and the quality of teacher-student and peer relationships. Our findings show a lack of studies prior to 2020, with most research conducted in China and limited contributions from Malaysia and Vietnam. The reviewed articles predominantly used cross-sectional quantitative designs and self-report questionnaires, employing statistical methods like path analysis and structural equation modeling. Theoretical frameworks on student engagement mostly followed Fredricks et al.‘s model, while teacher support theories varied, with three main patterns identified: direct influence, mediation through basic psychological needs, and social cognitive perspectives. This review emphasizes the crucial role of teacher support in enhancing student engagement in higher education and urges further exploration in this under-researched area.ConclusionIn conclusion, this review underscores the significant role of teacher support in enhancing student engagement in higher education. It highlights key theoretical frameworks and research methodologies, offering valuable insights for future studies aimed at advancing teacher support and student engagement in this context.

Purpose In recent years, the study of various forms of teacher leadership styles and behaviours, and student engagement has gained increasing attention because these constructs are critical for understanding student success and well-being. However, investigation of how these constructs interact to shape students' learning, particularly in the Ethiopian higher education contexts, remains underexplored. Addressing the gap, the present study examines how teacher leadership behaviours, as conceptualized by the Full-Range Leadership Model (which views leadership as a continuum that includes transformational, transactional and non-leadership behaviours), influence student engagement in Ethiopian public universities. Design/methodology/approach Employing a cross-sectional study design, the study involved 840 undergradute student participants selected through multistage stratified sampling. The data were collected using questionnaires and then analysed through structural equation modelling. Findings The study findings reveal that transformational teacher leadership is strongly and positively associated with student engagement, suggesting that a higher level of student engagement is related to teachers' demonstrating transformational leadership behaviours. Conversely, transactional teacher leadership shows a small negative association with student engagement, highlighting its limitation in promoting the motivation essential for sustained student engagement. Non-leadership teacher behaviours, on the other hand, yield a negligible positive link to student engagement, resulting in a fragile learning environment that is not conducive to sustained engagement. Originality/value Based on the findings, the study suggests practical implications for effective teacher leadership development programs and their associated influences in improving student engagement in higher education. Furthermore, the study's contextual specialization within the Ethiopian public universities setting provides novelty because the majority of earlier teacher leadership and related student outcomes investigations were carried out more in Western and to some extent in Asian higher education settings.

Student engagement has become problematic following the rise of mass and universal forms of higher education. Significant attention has been devoted to identifying factors that are associated with higher levels of engagement, but it remains the case that the underlying reasons for student engagement and, indeed, the notion itself of ‘student engagement’ remain weakly theorised. In this article, we seek to develop the theoretical basis for student engagement in a way that highlights the student's own contribution. We explore how learning involves students taking responsibility for action in the face of uncertainty, whether in pursuit of personal or communal concerns. Drawing on perspectives primarily from realist social theory, we suggest that student engagement may be shaped by extended, restricted and fractured modes of reflexivity and co‐reflexivity. In this way student engagement in higher education is theorised as a form of distributed agency, with the impact of a learning environment on this agency mediated by reflexivity. Reflexivity itself is further influenced by the tasks and social relations encountered by students in a given learning environment. The role that social relations play in students' responses to learning specifically offers a means to strengthen the moral basis for education. Our account provides an explanation as to why specific educational practices, such as those termed ‘high impact’, might lead to higher levels of student engagement within the wider context of a knowledge society. We thus offer insights towards new forms of educational practice and relations that have the potential to engage students more fully.

This guide aims to support our colleagues to have comprehensive understanding of student engagement in health professions education. Despite the universal agreement about the significance of student engagement, there is lack of uniformity in conceptualizing and operationalizing this emerging construct. We review the theoretical basis explaining student engagement from three main perspectives: behavioral, psychological, and socio-cultural. In addition, we propose a contemporary and comprehensive framework for the student engagement in higher education, which is applicable to health professions education contexts. Drawing from this framework, we explain the conceptualization of the construct and its preceding factors, mediators, dimensions, spheres, and outcomes of student engagement. The proposed framework introduces student ‘engagement through partnerships’ as a novel component compared with the existing models of student engagement in higher education. This way, we are proposing a mixed model that not only considers the student as a ‘customer’ but also as a ‘partner’ in education. Engagement of students through partnerships include four areas: (1) provision of the education program, (2) scholarly research, (3) governance and quality assurance, and (4) community activities. This guide will provide practical applications on how to improve student engagement in health professions education. Finally, we highlight the current gaps in areas of research in the student engagement literature and suggested plans for future directions. Practice points Student engagement is student investment of time and energy in academic and non-academic experiences that include learning, teaching, research, governance, and community activities. Students are involved in these aspects at the cognitive, affective, behavioral, agentic, and socio-cultural dimensions. Student engagement could be explained by three theoretical perspectives: behavioral, psychological, and socio-cultural. The theoretical framework for student engagement in health professions education consists of five components: (1) antecedents of engagement, which refer to institutional and student factors as well as the interactions (student-student and student-staff), (2) mediators of engagement, which include self-efficacy, motivation, belonging, and reflectivity, (3) engagement dimensions, which refer to the five dimensions of engagement: cognitive, behavioral, emotional, agentic, and socio-cultural, (4) Spheres of engagement, which refer to engagement in own learning and engagement through partnerships, and (5) outcomes of engagement, which are short-term and long-term. Engagement through partnerships includes four main areas: (1) provision of the education program, (2) scholarly research, (3) governance and quality assurance, and (4) community activities. The following measures are necessary to promote student engagement in HPE: (1) promote a culture of community and psychological safety, (2) create a culture of ‘students as partners’, (3) promote the use of active, collaborative learning methods with relevance to future career, and (4) promote the use of technology-enhanced learning.

Student engagement in higher education has been studied from various perspectives, but few studies have compared teachers’ and students’ perspectives on the subject. Considering that student engagement may be reduced to a performativity scarcely related to learning outcomes and that a good deal of it may be invisible to teachers, further studies are needed to contrast teachers’ and students’ views of student engagement in higher education. This article presents the results of a quantitative study about definitions and indicators of student engagement carried out with 118 students and 45 teachers of Law, Education and Nursing from two Catalan public universities (Spain). The results confirm the performativity associated with the concept by both teachers and students, and reveal that students may appreciate silent and invisible engagement more than teachers. The results also show that teachers may conflate signs of student engagement with good academic results and learning, risking an oversimplification of both student engagement and learning.

Student engagement is a crucial factor in the success of students enrolled in higher education. Despite the existence of numerous studies on the factors that influence student engagement, investigating the factors that affect the level of student engagement in higher education is important. In applying the behavioral reasoning theory (BRT), this research investigates factors that influence freshman students’ decisions to engage in academic activities. Data have been collected from a sample of students enrolled in management studies at the University of Federico II in Naples, Italy. The results highlight that reasons serve as important links between students’ values, global motives, and engagement behavior, confirming one of the main premises of BRT. In particular, the findings suggest that BRT is a good model to predict student engagement as global motives, intentions, and reasons for engagement have a significant direct effect on engagement. These findings support the importance of examining and reinforcing the reasons for engagement (facilitators) while minimizing the reasons against engagement (obstacles) in order to enhance students’ engagement in academic activities.

This article examines the experiences and perceptions of academics about student engagement and how their professional practice in a professional community enhances students’ persistence and success in a university in South Africa. While previous research has widely focused on students’ perception of how student engagement enhances student success and persistence, there is a paucity of research on the position of academics who constitute a professional community on how they could enhance student engagement in higher education. To address this knowledge gap, a qualitative research approach was used to gather and analyse data from a sample of 26 academics who shared their perceptions and experiences about how they contribute to enhancing student engagement in the university. Consequently, four main themes were explored to provide conceptual and empirical structure to the notion of engagement among academics in an expert community: institutional structure and culture, affective, behavioural and cognitive engagement. The results revealed that the cognitive, behavioural and affective features of student engagement as well as institutional structure and culture explain how academics experience and perceive how their professional practices enhances student persistence and success in relation to engagement. Particularly, the study shows that institutional culture, expert culture, professional community and institutional structure influence the perceptions and experiences of academics about student engagement. Conversely, when academics do not follow the expert and academic cultures of the institution, it could lead to poor professional practices that are antithetical to student persistence and success.

Aim/Purpose: Fostering student engagement is one of the great challenges of teaching, especially in online learning environments. An educators’ assumptions and beliefs about what student engagement is and how it manifests will shape the strategies they design to engage students in learning. However, there is no agreement on the definition of concept of student engagement and it re-mains a vague construct. Background: Adopting the principles of user-centered design, the author maintains that to design learning experiences which better support student engagement it is important to gain insights into how students perceive and operationalize the concept of engagement in learning. The recent challenges of teaching effectively online prompted the author to reflect more deeply on the concept of engagement and how it might be achieved. Methodology: In the tradition of reflective teaching, the author undertook an informal, qualitative inquiry in her classroom, administering a brief questionnaire to students in her online class. When the themes which emerged were integrated with other literature and findings from the author’s earlier classroom inquiry, some insights were gained into how students ‘operationalize’ the concept of engagement, and weight was added to the authors’ premise of the value of humanistic approaches to university teaching, the need for greater emphasis on student-teacher connection and the necessity of considering the affective domain alongside the cognitive domain in learning in higher education. The insights were brought together and visualized in a conceptual model of student engagement. Contribution: The conceptual model presented in the present paper reflects the author’s present ‘mental model’ of student engagement in classes online and, when the opportunity arrives, in face-to-face classes as well. This mental model shapes the authors’ course design, learning activities and the delivery of the course. Although the elements of the model are not ‘new’, the model synthesizes several related concepts necessary to a humanist approach to under-standing student engagement. It is hoped that the model and discussion presented will be stimulus for further rich discussion around the nature of student engagement. Findings: Interestingly, the affective rather than the cognitive domain framed students’ perspectives on what engagement ‘looks like to them’ and on what teachers should do to engage them. Recommendations for Practitioners: By sharing the process through which the author arrived at this understanding of student engagement, the author has also sought to highlight three key points: the importance of including the ‘student perspectives and expectations’ against which educators can examine their own assumptions as part of the process reflective teaching practices; the usefulness of integrating theoretical and philosophical frameworks in our understandings of student engagement and how it might be nurtured, and finally the necessity of affording greater influence to humanism and the affective domain in higher education. The findings emphasize the necessity of considering the affective dimension of engagement as an essential condition for cognitive engagement and as inextricable from the cognitive dimension of engagement. Recommendations for Researchers: The emphasis in research engagement learning and teaching is on how we (the educators) can do this better, how we can better engage students. While the student perspective is often formulated from data obtained through surveys and focus groups, researchers in learning engagement are working with their own understandings (albeit supported by empirical research). It is crucial for deeper insight to also understand the students’ conceptualization of the phenomena being researched. Bringing the principles of design thinking to bear on educational research will likely provide greater depth of insight. Impact on Society: Empirical, formal, and structured research is undeniably essential to advancing human endeavor in any field, including learning and teaching. It is however important to recognize informal research in the form of classroom inquiry as part of teachers’ reflexive practice is also legitimate and useful to advancing understanding of complex phenomenon such as student engagement in learning through multiple perspectives and experiences. Future Research: Further research on the nature of student engagement in different contexts and against different theoretical frameworks is warranted as is empirical investigation of the premise of the value of humanism and the affective do-main in defining and measuring student engagement in higher education.

Aim/Purpose; Fostering student engagement is one of the great challenges of teaching, especially in online learning environments. An educators’ assumptions and beliefs about what student engagement is and how it manifests will shape the strategies they design to engage students in learning. However, there is no agreement on the definition of concept of student engagement and it re-mains a vague construct. Background: Adopting the principles of user-centered design, the author maintains that to design learning experiences which better support student engagement it is important to gain insights into how students perceive and operationalize the concept of engagement in learning. The recent challenges of teaching effectively online prompted the author to reflect more deeply on the concept of engagement and how it might be achieved. Methodology: In the tradition of reflective teaching, the author undertook an informal, qualitative inquiry in her classroom, administering a brief questionnaire to students in her online class. When the themes which emerged were integrated with other literature and findings from the author’s earlier classroom inquiry, some insights were gained into how students ‘operationalize’ the concept of engagement, and weight was added to the authors’ premise of the value of humanistic approaches to university teaching, the need for greater emphasis on student-teacher connection and the necessity of considering the affective domain alongside the cognitive domain in learning in higher education. The insights were brought together and visualized in a conceptual model of student engagement. Contribution: The conceptual model presented in the present paper reflects the author’s present ‘mental model’ of student engagement in classes online and, when the opportunity arrives, in face-to-face classes as well. This mental model shapes the authors’ course design, learning activities and the delivery of the course. Although the elements of the model are not ‘new’, the model synthesizes several related concepts necessary to a humanist approach to under-standing student engagement. It is hoped that the model and discussion presented will be stimulus for further rich discussion around the nature of student engagement. Findings: Interestingly, the affective rather than the cognitive domain framed students’ perspectives on what engagement ‘looks like to them’ and on what teachers should do to engage them. Recommendations for Practitioners: By sharing the process through which the author arrived at this understanding of student engagement, the author has also sought to highlight three key points: the importance of including the ‘student perspectives and expectations’ against which educators can examine their own assumptions as part of the process reflective teaching practices; the usefulness of integrating theoretical and philosophical frameworks in our understandings of student engagement and how it might be nurtured, and finally the necessity of affording greater influence to humanism and the affective domain in higher education. The findings emphasize the necessity of considering the affective dimension of engagement as an essential condition for cognitive engagement and as inextricable from the cognitive dimension of engagement. Recommendations for Researchers: The emphasis in research engagement learning and teaching is on how we (the educators) can do this better, how we can better engage students. While the student perspective is often formulated from data obtained through surveys and focus groups, researchers in learning engagement are working with their own understandings (albeit supported by empirical research). It is crucial for deeper insight to also understand the students’ conceptualization of the phenomena being researched. Bringing the principles of design thinking to bear on educational research will likely provide greater depth of insight. Impact on Society: Empirical, formal, and structured research is undeniably essential to advancing human endeavor in any field, including learning and teaching. It is however important to recognize informal research in the form of classroom inquiry as part of teachers’ reflexive practice is also legitimate and useful to advancing understanding of complex phenomenon such as student engagement in learning through multiple perspectives and experiences. Future Research: Further research on the nature of student engagement in different contexts and against different theoretical frameworks is warranted as is empirical investigation of the premise of the value of humanism and the affective do-main in defining and measuring student engagement in higher education.