Student Engagement In Courses Research Articles

Blended online courses: students’ learning experiences and engaging instructional strategies

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the digital shift in higher education and forced university faculty to transform their courses into a blended or online modality to comply with current public health measures. Many instructors have implemented blended online courses, which combine synchronous and asynchronous online teaching and learning activities. The purpose of this study is to document university students’ learning experiences in blended online courses during the pandemic, and to identify instructional strategies to support student engagement in these courses. It adopts a mixed-methods research strategy in which data were collected through questionnaires from students who took a blended online course in the summer semester of 2020, in a variety of disciplines and academic cycles at four Quebec universities (n = 482). Following the analysis of student responses to open-ended questions, five recurring themes were identified: the enhancement of student-student interactions, the dynamism of synchronous and asynchronous sessions, the structured presentation of the course, the explanations and feedback from instructors, and the accessibility and involvement of instructors. For each theme, suggestions from student feedback are provided to facilitate student engagement in blended online courses.

Increasing Engagement in Geoscience Through Storytelling

In recent years, educators have been trying to devise programs that could increase student engagement in courses related to science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM). These programs could help to reduce drop-out rates in higher education, encouraging more youths to pursue STEM careers. Dr Erin Kraal and Dr Laura Guertin, two professors at Kutztown University and Penn State Brandywine, have recently assessed ‘Student Produced Audio Narratives’ (SPAN), a teaching approach designed to improve the perceptions of students enrolled in introductory geoscience courses and increase their engagement.

The Class Interview: Student Engagement in Courses Covering Sensitive Topics

Given the range of sensitive topics covered in many psychology courses, building community among students may encourage participation and impact student learning. This study investigated student responses to an interview activity used within several diversity courses in psychology. During the class interview, the instructor gathered information about students' backgrounds, concerns, and fears associated with the course, and their needs for successful learning. The second phase of the interview gave students the opportunity to interview the instructor. In a post-activity survey, students ( N = 131) reported their approval of the exercise with recommendations that faculty use it in more courses. Participants also indicated that the interview process encouraged student participation in class discussions, created a more comfortable classroom environment, and clarified course expectations. Several students specifically credited the interview exercise with promoting ‘collaboration with peers’ and creating a ‘sense of community’. They also indicated they appreciated the chance to ‘get to know other students’ as well as the ‘professor's concern for student opinions’.

Student engagement in very large classes: the teachers’ perspective

The rapid growth in the student population observed in higher education over the past 10–15 years in some countries has coincided with an increased recognition of student engagement and its value in developing knowledge. Active learning approaches have the potential to promote student engagement with lectures, but this becomes more challenging as class sizes increase. This study investigates student engagement from the teachers’ perspective, to identify current practices in teaching, learning and assessment designed to promote student engagement in courses with more than 1000 students enrolled at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. The study is based on semi‐structured interviews with six course coordinators. The results demonstrate that teaching techniques commonly associated with small‐class teaching can be used to engage students in very large classes. The effectiveness of these approaches from the students’ perspectives warrants further investigation.