Examining Online Student Engagement in a Program Development Course Offered at a Research University in the Southern Region of the U.S.

A best practice is a technique or methodology that, through experience and research, has proven to reliably lead to a desired result (Rouse, 2007). This chapter explores a best practice that aimed to increase the engagement of online students in a teacher education course. The best practice is related to the Community of Inquiry (CoI; Anderson, & Archer, 2000), a framework that provides an understanding of the development of online learning communities (Swan & Ice, 2010). The chapter includes a brief review of the literature on the factors that foster student engagement; online student engagement is also discussed. A description is provided of a course assignment that was modified to increase the engagement of online students. The results of this assignment's modification were positively perceived by the online students. The chapter concludes with recommended technology tools to foster engagement of online students.

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Preservice Teachers Exploring the Nature of Science in Simulated Worlds

K-12 STEM Education ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-3832-5.ch024 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 476-498

Author(s):

Jill A. Marshall ◽

Tim Erickson ◽

Kumaridevi Sivam

Keyword(s):

Preservice Teachers ◽

Nature Of Science ◽

Research University ◽

Student Beliefs ◽

Online Journal ◽

Video Recordings ◽

And Mathematics ◽

Science And Mathematics Teachers ◽

Development Course ◽

Practice Of Science

This article reports an investigation of preservice teachers' interactions with a computer simulation designed to allow them to explore the nature and practices of science. Participants included 188 preservice, secondary-level, science and mathematics teachers who were enrolled in one of seven consecutive semesters in a professional development course as part of the teacher certification program at a large research university. Artifacts, including articles published in an online journal, responses to focus questions, reflections on the activity, as well as audio and video recordings of the activities themselves, were analyzed following a grounded approach. The simulation activities qualified in many respects as authentic science as identified by . Further, what these activities revealed about student beliefs in regard to the nature and practice of science correlated with their reactions toward the simulation and their views of how it might be used in high school classes.

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The Pivotal Role of Faculty in Online Student Engagement and Retention

Handbook of Research on Strategic Management of Interaction, Presence, and Participation in Online Courses - Advances in Educational Technologies and Instructional Design ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-9582-5.ch003 ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 65-87

Author(s):

Judi Simmons Estes

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Student Engagement ◽

Online Courses ◽

Pivotal Role ◽

Institutions Of Higher Education ◽

Online Faculty ◽

Faculty Professional Development ◽

Online Student ◽

Teaching Online ◽

Teaching Culture

The premise of this chapter is that higher education online faculty have a pivotal role in student retention; faculty participation is key to student engagement and engaged students tend to complete courses in which they are enrolled. However, frequently faculty members are unaware of the impact their active participation and visibility has on student engagement and retention. In addition, online courses are an important source of revenue for many institutions of higher education and attrition results in loss of revenue. Given that faculty have a pivotal role in retention, institutions of higher education can benefit fiscally from guiding and supporting online faculty in strategies of student engagement and retention. Faculty support is needed during the process of change inherent in faculty adapting to teaching online, through providing on-going faculty professional development and by creating a teaching culture inclusive of informal scholarly investigations related to instructional effectiveness in online course delivery.

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E-Portfolios

Handbook of Research on Fostering Student Engagement With Instructional Technology in Higher Education - Advances in Educational Technologies and Instructional Design ◽

10.4018/978-1-7998-0119-1.ch010 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 167-184 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Judith A. Giering ◽

Yitna B. Firdyiwek

Keyword(s):

Student Engagement ◽

Liberal Arts ◽

Research University ◽

Qualitative Data ◽

Liberal Arts College ◽

High Impact ◽

Learning Engagement ◽

High Impact Practice ◽

Over Time ◽

Do So

This chapter describes the experiences of a liberal arts college that is part of a large research university implementing e-portfolios with a focus on learning engagement. Using qualitative data collected over time and programmatic experience, the team assesses the depth of engagement their students are experiencing, to determine whether most students are using e-portfolios to engage in learning on their own, or only when prompted to do so by faculty within the confines of a single course. Too few students have taken full ownership of their e-portfolios and engaged with them as a meta-high impact practice. Implications of this finding suggest faculty using e-portfolios need to be intentional about student engagement at the meta-high impact level. Part of achieving this is developing further clarity on what it looks like when e-portfolios are designed to be used as a meta-high impact practice while applying more rigorous methods to determine when students have reached this level of engagement.

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