Using Digital Tools to Enhance Student Engagement in Online Learning: An Action Research Study

Abstract

Although online learning in higher education (HE) is not new, the scope of online learning has not been explored enough in developing countries until the COVID-19 pandemic. Alongside inadequate facilities and resources, engaging students in online environments seems to pose a greater concern for tertiary-level teachers. Various strategies to engage online learners have been proposed, but only a few researchers have indicated the effect of such strategies on students’ engagement in low-resourced contexts. This chapter reports on an action research study that utilized various digital tools such as Padlet, G Suite applications, features of Zoom and Google Classroom to foster student engagement in a course taught online over six months in a public university in Bangladesh. A teaching journal was kept by me to record my observations after each session which also acted as critical incidents for the study. To evaluate the action plan, the study elicited data from various sources: student feedback forms, observations recorded in my teaching journal, and data from semi-structured interviews with five participants selected purposively at the end of the teaching. Findings from the thematic analysis of each dataset revealed that the nature of the tools encouraged participation, interaction, and communication among students although technical issues and inadequate induction affected their engagement. The study made several recommendations regarding the affordances of these tools and the role that the institutions might play in implementing these tools in a low-resourced context like Bangladesh.