Increase Student Engagement Research Articles

Thank You for Being a Friend: A Peer-Learning Approach to Marketing Education

Peer learning, a pedagogical approach whereby students are partnered together to have one student actively help another student learn predetermined content or skills, has long been utilized as an effective complement to more traditional instructional methods across a wide range of educational disciplines. This approach has been found to reduce the stress of learning, increase student engagement, and yield benefits to both the tutor and the tutee to a roughly equal degree. Yet, pedagogical research to this point has mostly failed to explore the usefulness of this approach to marketing and sales education. In the present research, we examine the effectiveness of peer-learning applications in a sales context and discuss marketing educators' implications. More specifically, we assess college sales students’ perceptions of peer-learning role-play exercise and further examine whether peer-learning exercises can improve students’ abilities. The results indicate that peer-learning exercises are not only enjoyed by students but are capable of producing objective performance improvement for both introductory and advanced students.

Undergraduate Student Course Engagement of an Ethnically Diverse Population in Auckland, New Zealand

Increasing student engagement leads to improved educational outcomes, promotes positive student experiences, and reduces attrition rates. In Aotearoa (New Zealand), Māori students now account for 20% of university enrolments, but first-year attrition rates are approximately 17%. Both Māori and Pasifika students are more likely to drop-out during their first year of study than Pākehā students. To address the question Are Māori and Pasifika students less engaged than Pākehā students when studying in their first year of university? we measured student engagement during a compulsory first-year course delivered by a university in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland). Questions were from the National Survey of Student Engagement, and students identified their ethnicity as either Māori, Pākehā, Pasifika, or Other. Information on the campus of study was also collected. Three scales within the questionnaire were (1) Cooperative Learning, (2) Cognitive Development, and (3) Personal Skills, and both total score, and score for each scale, were compared between ethnicities and across campuses. Total engagement for Māori students was higher than all other ethnicities on all campuses, and at the South Auckland Campus, Māori students scored higher in Cooperative Learning than all other ethnicities. These encouraging scores for Māori students reflect a commitment of inclusion and support for Māori enrolled at this large tertiary education provider in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa. The questionnaire was convenient to use and scales showed good internal consistency. We suggest that regular measures of student course engagement are made so trends can be shown for all student groups enrolled at universities throughout Aotearoa.

Sculptorades, Cloodles, and Cameos, Oh My! A Cranium Game for General Psychology

Background: Many instructors use trivia-style review games to encourage self-testing, increase student engagement, and promote collaboration. However, most published examples of review games include trivia questions only, rather than activities that incorporate kinesthetic learning. Objective: We evaluate a review activity modeled after the game Cranium, which includes charades, pictionary, sculpting, and trivia questions. Method: In Pilot Study 1, general psychology students ( n = 25) completed a self-report evaluation of Cranium, and we compared performance on exam items practiced during Cranium versus control items. In Pilot Study 2, students ( n = 23) were assigned to review for a mock exam via Cranium, a trivia-only version of Cranium, or a practice question review. Results: Students rated Cranium as enjoyable and useful, though not more so than comparison activities, and Cranium elicited similar exam performance to comparison activities. Conclusion: Cranium is similar, not superior, to trivia-only and practice question review activities in terms of student perceptions and exam performance. Teaching Implications: Cranium provides an additional tool for instructors to engage students in team-based review activities in general psychology. Games that incorporate self-testing are likely useful for student engagement and learning, and the specific choice of activity may depend on instructor and student preference.

Redesigning an Undergraduate Global Health Course to Increase Student Engagement and Incorporate High-Impact Educational Practices

In many undergraduate public health programs, global health is an introductory course encountered early in the curriculum. At the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, the undergraduate global health course reinforces introductory content within a global health framework while building skills in preparation for upper-division work. The global health course was completely redesigned in January 2018 to increase student engagement and incorporate high-impact educational practices, including experiential learning opportunities, diversity/global learning, and collaborative assignments. New activities incorporated include a water carrying exercise to simulate efforts required for the billions of people worldwide who manually transport water for daily use and a model United Nations scenario-based activity based on a writing assignment proposing an international policy from the position of a selected country. Incorporation of relatively brief written assignments early in the undergraduate public health curriculum additionally serves to support student development of written communication skills throughout the program and helps in early identification of students who may need additional support in writing skills. Assessment of the new course was conducted through student feedback, student performance on assignments, and student growth/development throughout the course. Through successful course redesign students emerge excited about international opportunities for public health practice and with a greater empathy for global citizens living abroad.

A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of a Hybrid Course Modality to Increase Student Engagement and Mastery of Course Content in Undergraduate Research Methods Classes

An undergraduate Research Methods in Criminal Justice class was taught in two different modalities, traditional and hybrid, over 8 semesters. The hybrid course sought to increase student engagement through student-driven active learning modules delivered online while maintaining mastery of course content. Using a mixed-methods research design, engagement with course material was evaluated by assessing a mid-semester student survey in the hybrid offerings and comparing the two modalities using qualitative and quantitative data from end of semester student ratings of teaching effectiveness. Mastery of course content was assessed by comparing exam scores between the two modalities. Qualitative data suggest greater course engagement among students enrolled in the hybrid sections. A quantitative analysis revealed significantly higher average mean test scores among students in the hybrid group across all three exams. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research and extensions of the hybrid modality to other criminal justice courses.

Twitter in higher education: increasing student engagement

ABSTRACT Engagement is an essential factor in successful outcomes for students. Several studies have shown that the use of Twitter in the higher education classroom has the potential to increase student engagement. Student engagement increases students’ academic success, because they are interacting with the course content, peers and the course instructor on a higher level. In this time of a world-wide pandemic, more and more institutions of higher education are offering online courses. The following bullet points have implications for higher education teaching in that they demonstrate the positive aspects of using Twitter. The key findings of this manuscript include: There are statistically significant positive correlations between student engagement and their academic success. Twitter increases student engagement in the higher education classroom. Students who would normally not speak up in class are able to increase their engagement in class discussions, etc. through the use of Twitter. Twitter is a potential tool for overcoming student feelings of isolation due to a lack of communication intimacy and immediacy. Twitter provides another communication channel; provides a space to share assignments; and provides a medium where students actively engage with other, with the course content, and with the professor both in out of classroom.

Physical Activity With Gaming as a Teaching Strategy to Increase Student Engagement

Physical Activity With Gaming as a Teaching Strategy to Increase Student Engagement

Putting “US” back in Museums: Increasing Student Engagement via Experiential Learning Writing Assignments

This paper details the evolution of a course, Arts and Society, and the inception of a student-centered assignment, “Putting ‘US’ back in Museums.” By tapping into a nationwide discussion of inclusion and public spaces, this business proposal style assignment asks students to consider their own observations as museum visitors alongside research that considers community engagement, diversity and accessibility in order to identify a specific issue within a museum and to propose change. Throughout the project, students are supported by the implementation of smaller scaffolding assignments, in-class discussions, an embedded librarian and an assigned writing fellow. Furthermore, they will meet at least eight professionals in the field and visit at least four different local sites. This assignment demonstrates best practices via scaffolding, institutional support, experiential learning, and engagement with the local community.

Classroom Behaviour Management: Increase Student Engagement and Promoting Positive Behaviour

Student behaviour and engagement in school is crucial for effective learning. The classroom management approaches are usually categorised into two main groups- reactive and proactive. This article examines classroom behaviour management through the lens of reactive and proactive management strategies. It reports on the perceptions of different stakeholders regarding low-level disengaged behaviour in the classroom. Also, evaluate some of the strategies teachers employ for managing student behaviour and effectiveness of those strategies. Antecedent behaviour management strategies have been an effective tool for managing disengaged behaviour. Despite the positive outcomes of antecedent approaches research showed educators employed these strategies occasionally.

High Impact Practices Through Experiential Student Philanthropy: A Case Study of the Mayerson Student Philanthropy Project and Academic Success at Northern Kentucky University

High impact educational practices are active learning strategies that benefit learning outcomes, increase student engagement, and support student retention. This study examines the retention and persistence impact of student philanthropy, an active learning approach that engages students with the community by incorporating a philanthropy component into college courses. Results from this study demonstrate that students who participated in one or more student philanthropy courses had a substantially higher four-year graduation rate in comparison to students overall. Participants also exhibited a greater number of completed credit hours compared to the general university population and a higher semester-to-semester retention rate. This affirms the value of student philanthropy as a High Impact Teaching Practice (HITP) that actively engages students inside and outside of the classroom, around the university campus, and in the community.

Quick Fix: Using Interteaching to Increase Student Engagement in Online Courses

Enrollment in distance education continues to increase (Babson Survey Research Group 2018). Faculty often encourage online student engagement through discussion board interaction. These discussion ...

A quality initiative for comprehensive integration of a standardized assessment product in nursing education

BackgroundMany nursing programs utilize standardized assessment products to support student NCLEX-RN achievement. Nursing education literature offers little information about the most effective way to integrate standardized assessment products to maximize outcomes. Problem DescriptionInconsistent alignment and implementation of a standardized assessment product contributed to poor student engagement and low benchmark assessment outcome achievement. MethodA quality improvement initiative established a comprehensive curricular integration plan to evaluate proctored assessment placement, develop a comprehensive policy to integrate products across the curriculum, increase student engagement and evaluate outcomes. ResultsImprovement was noted in both cohort mean scores and benchmark level achievement on all assessments, with statistically significant improvement in the majority. Decisions related to assessment placement and elimination of double testing practices were validated by improved student outcomes. Product integration significantly increased across the curriculum. ConclusionsOptimization of standardized assessment product use followed a systematic approach utilizing best-practice recommendations.

INFLUENCE OF EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING AND RELATIONAL SATISFACTION ON STUDENTS-UNIVERSITY IDENTIFICATION AND WORD-OF-MOUTH

The purpose of the study was to examine the association of students learning from experience and relationship with other members in the university such as lecturers, support staff and peers on the students identification with the University. Identifying the student’s engagement to the University will help the University management to create a comprehensive academic content and conducive learning environment. Three hundred and seventy-nine students of a local private university participated. The results indicated that learning from experiences, relational satisfaction between the students-Lecturers, Students-Staff and Students-Peers has a significant relationship with University Identification and positive word-of-mouth. The findings of this study suggest that, to increase students’ engagement and identification with the University, the management of the University need to obtain a favorable reputation held by students and cultivate a satisfactory relationship with the students through more hands-on experience and students’ involvement in strengthening the name of the University into public eyes, while fostering identification of the Students with the University.

Increasing Student Engagement with Personalized Emails

Despite a large number of studies in personalizing e-learning systems, only a few sufficiently cover the impact of personalization on university emails. Either universities impose the use of university email or students are reluctant to use it. For instance, It was found that at King Abdulaziz University only 23% of students were using the university email to communicate regularly, unlike the faculty members, who showed an 80% commitment. However, this paper attempts to investigate the effect of applying different personalized systems on the university email and whether using adaptation and adaptability techniques in the university email will cover the huge gap between the university and its members. Specifically, frameworks were built to evaluate the efficiency, frequency of error occurrence, effectiveness, and user satisfaction in each experiment. We focused on testing the usability of personalized email against the existing university email and then evaluate which approach (adaptive, adaptable, or mixed-initiative) is more favorable to personalize the university email. These were conducted and evaluated using 40 subjects. Interestingly, results show that subjects with personalized emails were most efficient and satisfied as well as errors were reduced by 42%. Furthermore, significant differences were found between the three approaches (adaptive, adaptable, and mixed-initiative), and the adaptive approach was the most preferred by the respondents. A set of empirically derived guidelines was also discussed as a basis for developing a suitable university email structure.

Using a Mental Obstacle Course to Engage and Elevate Learning in an Anatomy and Physiology Laboratory

OBJECTIVEIn order to increase student engagement and learning in a combined anatomy and physiology undergraduate teaching laboratory we designed a type of mental obstacle course. Students completed a series of ‘quests’ designed to increase student learning and develop skills such as critical thinking and analysis. We used this strategy specifically in classes that lacked dynamic student activities and that we felt might otherwise be less engaging and impactful.METHODSIn laboratory classes of 15 students, we designed between 5–8 stations comprised of multistep quests on a specific aspect of the central topic of the laboratory. Students worked in small groups of 2–3, could consult with peers and use outside resources available to them to complete the tasks. The groups of students were required to complete the quests and submit their answers in order to finish the class. Examples of quests that we used were reviewing x‐ray images of various human pathologies of the skeletal system and answering a series of questions about those images including anatomical information, normal physiological processes and apparent pathology of the case. A second example was students were required to create a model of a synovial joint using modeling clay and then annotate the model with information on anatomical features and their functions.RESULTSAs a class we reviewed the tasks and the answers in order to correct any mistakes and student misconceptions. A week later we reviewed the material in quiz form to assess the success of the obstacle course on student understanding. We found that some of the tasks were more successful than others and were occasionally surprised by the results, such as the ability of the students to recall some of the clinical cases from a task.CONCLUSIONSThe quest laboratory set‐up was popular with students and increased their engagement with the material and with each other. Using student feedback and quiz results we plan to improve the design of the tasks and further increase student engagement and understanding.

From Discussion Forums to eMeetings: Integrating High Touch Strategies to Increase Student Engagement, Academic Performance, and Retention in Large Online Courses

Student engagement and group work are critical to developing competencies, deeper learning, and attributes that align with 21st-century skills. Group work is particularly important for future employment in an increasingly competitive and dynamic workforce. A new capstone group work assignment using Online Human Touch (OHT) strategies was integrated into an Information Systems course at a regional university in the Caribbean. The course typically enrolls 250-300+ students per semester with one instructor. The assignment simulated a real-world business ‘eMeeting’ to proactively increase student engagement and retention. Quantitative data was collected three years prior to, and three years after the new ‘eMeeting’ format. Qualitative feedback after the integration shows significant increases in student engagement, while results and data show improved academic performance, higher scores on the standardized final exam and decreases in attrition. Integrating group assignments in large courses with real-world requirements, not only provide students with the opportunity to apply the knowledge, skills, and experience gained throughout the course, but enhance key soft skills sought by employers including problem-solving, ability to work in teams, communication, leadership, and time management.

A new twist on the graduate student journal club: Using a topic-centered approach to promote student engagement.

Journal clubs are widely used as an educational tool in graduate life science programs. In journal clubs, students are assigned to read specific journal articles to achieve a broad knowledge in their field of study and to gain competence in reading and assessing scientific publications. However, students often show low motivation to read assigned articles, and under-prepared students contribute little to in-class discussions. In order to promote student engagement in graduate-level journal clubs, we used an inverted, student-centered format that focuses on a scientific question or topic rather than specific publications. Both the weekly topics and the scientific publications were selected by the students and focused on aspects of the students' thesis research. For each weekly topic, students were asked to find papers, read the papers and summarize the findings during class, which led to the presentation of a variety of approaches and viewpoints. This approach trained students in literature search, focused reading and oral presentation skills and provided a broad overview of the research in the selected topic areas. Student feedback showed a high level of acceptance of the new format. We propose this inverted journal club format as a useful alternative to traditional formats, because it focuses on a different scientific skill set and leads to increased student engagement through its student-centered approach.

M-Learning: An Integrative Approach to Increase Student Engagement


 
 
 M-learning utilizes handheld electronic devices as didactic tools for facilitating learning and teaching within real-time access in the language classroom. Current studies on m-learning suggest that the incorporation of electronic devices can lead to greater student engagement and better performance. Using a questionnaire, 22 professors from the major Bachelor’s in the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language from the Universidad Nacional (Costa Rica) were surveyed about how mobile devices are being implemented in the language classroom.
 
 

Students’ Perceptions of an EFL Vocabulary Learning Mobile Application

Mobile devices have penetrated all spheres of human activities, including education. Previous research has shown that smartphones are becoming widely used in learning as they can improve knowledge retention and increase student engagement. The purpose of this study was to discuss students’ perception of the use of a mobile application aimed at learning new English vocabulary and phrases and describe its strengths and weaknesses as perceived by the students. In total, 28 university students answered a pen and paper questionnaire survey after experiencing the app during one semester. Overall, the students’ agreement to the positive aspects displayed in the questionnaire prevailed over their disagreement or neutral opinions. The mobile app helped students prepare for the final achievement test, learning was accessible from anywhere and at any time, students appreciated the corrective feedback and would opt for the implementation of the mobile app in other courses taught at the faculty. On the other hand, as the findings indicate, the students reported that the app was not very supportive regarding communication performance; they did not find the teachers’ notifications encouraging and they did not use the pronunciation support much, which was caused by various factors, such as offering students words and phrases without context or not testing all the items in the final credit test. The findings of this study contribute to the existing knowledge of students’ perceptions of the use of mobile apps for learning purposes.

Student Disaffection: The Contribution of Greek In-service Kindergarten Teachers in Engaging Each Preschooler in Learning.

Engaging each student in learning comprises a continuous challenge and concern for the contemporary teacher. Educational research confirms the alarming increase of the disengaged students, relating student disaffection to adverse effects on students’ academic development. In the present research through one-on-one, semi-structured interviews, we investigate 80 Greek in-service kindergarten teachers’ opinions with regards to the significance of engaging the disengaged students in learning activities in preschool environments. The interviews based on Creswell’s (2009) interview model, incorporate open-ended and close-ended questions that offer a well-rounded view of the subject. Qualitative and quantitative data analysis of teachers’ opinions show that engaging each disengaged preschooler has multiple benefits on students’ academic development, class climate, and cohesion, and teacher’s self-efficacy, as well. Specifically, teachers’ engaging actions offer students the opportunity to develop their abilities, self-efficacy, and sense of belonging. The interviewees also recognise that increased student engagement levels decisively affect teachers—students’ interactions, offering at the same time clear feedback to the teacher.