Sessions will be held in the UCET classroom (NS245) between noon and 1pm unless otherwise noted (before or after the Academic Senate meeting).
Feel free to bring your lunch. Soft drinks and water will be provided.
2024-2025 Dean's Seminar Series
Abstract
Student engagement is a key factor for enhancing the quality of teaching and learning in higher education. It refers to the degree of involvement, interest, and enthusiasm that students show in their learning process. Engagement can be influenced by various factors, such as the course content, the instructional methods, the learning environment, and the student characteristics. Online courses, which are becoming more prevalent and accessible in higher education, pose new challenges and opportunities for fostering student engagement. Online courses can offer more flexibility, convenience, and diversity for students, but they can also create a sense of isolation, detachment, and confusion. Therefore, it is important to understand how students perceive and experience online courses, and how their engagement levels compare to those in face-to-face courses.
Previous research has suggested that there is a positive relationship between learning outcomes and student expectations, and that both factors can affect student engagement. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence on how these factors differ between online and face-to-face courses. This study aims to fill this gap through an analysis of surveys of more than 200 students. The results showed that students can learn as much and feel as engaged in online courses, even though many in higher education do not view that modality as effective as the traditional methods of teaching and learning. The paper contributes to the theme of recognizing impact and reinvigorating practice by exploring what works in online courses to foster student engagement and satisfaction. The goal is to address why students may succeed while expecting to be less engaged in the online format.