Techniques to Support Student Engagement in Computer Science Online Learning

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the techniques that students perceive as important to support their engagement in computer science online learning, and to examine the effect of the gender and educational stage on students’ appreciation of these techniques. The study relied on the descriptive approach and used a questionnaire to collect data. The questionnaire consisted of 29 techniques to support students’ engagement, divided into three main categories: engagement among students, engagement between student and teacher, and engagement between students and educational content. The questionnaire was distributed electronically after verifying its validity and reliability. The study sample consisted of 405 male and female students in middle and high school in Riyadh. The finding indicated that students saw the importance of all the techniques to support their engagement in computer science online learning, and the student-teacher engagement techniques were the most important for students, followed by the student-content engagement techniques, then the student-student engagement techniques. In addition, the results indicated that there were statistically significant differences in the average of sample’s responses related to the variable of gender in favor of females; and related to the variable of educational stage in favor of the high school. The study recommended the importance of paying attention to the engagement techniques in online learning environment generally because of their great importance for both male and female students, and the need to develop teacher preparation programs in line with the modern trends towards online learning. Keywords: Engagement Techniques, online learning, computer science