Abstract
Creating an engaging course environment requires a conscious effort from faculty to utilize course design, teaching methods, and instructional technologies that foster high levels of student interaction. Instructional technologies paired with effective pedagogies are making student engagement in online environments rich and meaningful. The use of instructional technologies is linked to student engagement in the online learning environment. Utilization of instructional technologies should address three major types of interaction: student interaction with course content, the faculty, and their learning peers. The use of instructional technologies to engage students can also increase students' motivation for their learning by increasing student value for course content. This chapter addresses specific strategies for utilization of course design, pedagogies, and instructional technologies to incorporate student interaction and develop and maintain students' motivation in their learning.
TopBackground
Research throughout the years demonstrates a link between the use of specific teaching methods or technologies and student engagement in online learning environments. Engagement increases with online collaborative activities (Thurmond & Wambach, 2004) and with the use of Twitter to engage students in student-to-student interaction (Junco, Heiberger, & Loken, 2011). What these studies and the many others like them demonstrate is the endless possible combination of specific application of pedagogy or utilization of technologies to effect student engagement. What, then, has the greatest effect on student engagement?
The faculty are online education’s greatest asset in promoting and fostering student engagement. Faculty connect effective and empowering pedagogies to their subject matter to engage students in their understanding of course material (Shulman, 1987). Faculty act as artists and craftsmen, placed at the center of the design, delivery, assessment, and refinement of curricula (Flynn, James, Mathien, Mitchell, & Whalen, 2017). Faculty are the principal players in education and are the single most important factor in student engagement through facilitation of student learning.
If faculty are responsible for designing a learning experience that engages students, it is important to recognize what an engaged online student looks like. Classic research tells faculty to look at actions of participation such as talking and thinking about course material, and what students do with and feel about course material (Vygotsky, 1978; Wenger, 1998). How is this possible in online environments? Online student engagement is said in a recent study to manifest in the caliber of student work and the extent students maintain interpersonal relationships with faculty and other students (Kahn, Everington, Kelm, Reid, & Watkins, 2017). Other benchmarks come from the National Survey of Student Engagement, which was originally developed in 1998 to study engagement across campuses and traditional classrooms (Our Origins and Potential, 2019), and has since been used by online learning researchers to investigate engagement in online courses. This survey defines five benchmarks of engagement: Level of academic challenge, active and collaborative learning, student-to-faculty interaction, enriching educational experience, and supportive campus environment. These works help provide ways to evaluate faculty pedagogical, course design, and technology decisions and their impact on online student engagement.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Preceptorship: A learning experience where students learn alongside a professional performing tasks and using theories commonly utilized in that particular field of work.
Engagement: Sustained connectedness within a course through actions such as thinking, feeling, applying, and creating.
Instructional Technology: Technologies used to instruct students, often providing interactivity with course material and opportunities to apply knowledge and skills.
Motivation: The ability to maintain behaviors that drive an individual towards achievement of goals.
Facilitation: Presence of the faculty in guiding and supporting the learning process.
Interaction: Connecting with content, faculty, and other students through communication and collaboration.
Online Environment: A virtual learning experience where individuals who are involved in the learning are not located physically close to one another, but can be located at any distance from one another, and interact with learning platforms to share information and apply knowledge and skills for learning assessment.
Value: A feeling that course material and tasks are important to one’s future goals, self of identity, and interests.