Abstract
Covid-19 presented many challenges to universities around the world as brick-and-mortar courses were moved to an online format. This work is an unofficial study of faculty-student interaction and student engagement in 7-week online graduate-level courses conducted in Spring 2020, Fall 2020, and early Spring 2021. Research shows that instructor presence in online courses leads to increased student engagement, as well as motivation, well-being, and academic achievement. Student engagement is shown to have a direct impact on a student’s emotional, behavioral, and cognitive successes. This work proposes that increased faculty-student interaction in online courses using a variety of strategies would lead to greater student engagement with the course, and in the end, greater student success in overcoming barriers and challenges to online learning.
Highlights
With the spread of Covid-19 in the spring of 2020, most, if not all universities, chose to move all their courses online
Beginning in Fall 2016, it was reported that 31.6% of higher education enrollments in the United States were in online courses (Seaman, Allen, & Seaman, 2018)
Preliminary numbers state that 97% of college students switched to online instruction by June 2020 (Educationdata.org), while at the same time, university presidents were concerned with online course challenges such as maintaining student engagement, faculty training in online teaching, student success, and achieving academic standards
Summary
With the spread of Covid-19 in the spring of 2020, most, if not all universities, chose to move all their courses online. The transition from face-to-face classes to online classes is a challenge under the best of circumstances, but as higher education moves into a ‘new normal’, faculty development and training can assist in the event it is necessary to move online again Organizations, such as Quality Matters (www.qualitymatters.org) and the Online Learning Consortium (www.onlinelearningconsortium) work with universities, faculty, students, researchers, and faculty development administrators to provide the tools, resources, and community that help faculty design, develop and facilitate quality and engaging online courses. While many of my colleagues were focusing on moving course material onto the LMS and learning Zoom, my primary focus was on my students This piece presents my experiences teaching three asynchronous online courses during our Covid-19 quarantine year, regarding learner-instructor interaction and student engagement
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