Abstract
This study aimed to identify factors influencing student engagement in online and blended courses at one Australian regional university. It applied a data science approach to learning and teaching data gathered from the learning management system used at this university. Data were collected and analysed from 23 subjects, spanning over 5500 student enrolments and 406 lecturer and tutor roles, over a five-year period. Based on a theoretical framework adapted from Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework by Garrison et al. (2000), the data were segregated into three groups for analysis: Student Engagement, Course Content and Teacher Input. The data analysis revealed a positive correlation between Student Engagement and Teacher Input, and interestingly, a negative correlation between Student Engagement and Course Content when a certain threshold was exceeded. The findings of the study offer useful suggestions for future course design, and pedagogical approaches teachers can adopt to foster student engagement.
Highlights
The past decade has seen a rapid growth in online learning offerings, especially in higher education
This study aims to form a preliminary understanding of the factors affecting student engagement, using data collected from online and blended courses at one Australian regional university
As our aim is to identify factors influential to student engagement, we investigated whether Student Engagement (SE) is correlated with Course Content (CC) and Teacher Input (TI), and the nature of such relationships if they exist
Summary
The past decade has seen a rapid growth in online learning offerings, especially in higher education. Learning analytics is being increasingly used by educational institutions to build predictive models on student outcomes, to identify at-risk students, and to flag early warnings and need for interventions [4,5]. This present research is such an exploration built on this recognition. Points Three and Five can be seen in Swenson [7] All these techniques can be observed in later learning analytic research conducted in the context of higher education in Australia (for example, see [5,8])
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