Rolling With the Flow

2022 ◽  
pp. 307-328
Author(s):  
Jim A. McCleskey ◽  
Rebecca M. Melton
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Student Experience ◽  
Online Student ◽  
Instructor Immediacy ◽  
Instructor Presence ◽  
Effective Delivery ◽  
Student Reflections ◽  
Online Instructor

COVID-19 created a paradigm shift in higher education (HE), speeding up a process that was already underway and forcing institutions and instructors to develop the competencies necessary to offer effective delivery and resources online. Student reflections on Spring 2020 suggested that institutions were not always successful in their transitions. Students saw gaps in crucial areas, including online instructor presence, social presence for instructors and peers, and instructor immediacy. The purpose of this chapter is to propose best practices for instructional practice and technology in the online virtual education space to increase student engagement, instructor immediacy, and online social presence. HE institutions must embrace or enhance a variety of techniques that will improve the student experience. HE continues its shift toward cutting-edge technology to scale, streamline, and improve student engagement and interaction while creating new ways of establishing instructor presence and immediacy.

Humorous Presence in Online Learning

2022 ◽  
pp. 96-105
Author(s):  
Gary Ritter
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Online Learning ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Instructional Designers ◽  
Memory Retention ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Instructor Presence

Online learning is an established and growing segment of higher education. Instructors, instructional designers, and leadership should focus on establishing instructor and social presence to overcome student feelings of isolation and boredom which can lead to disengagement and have negative effects on learning. The use of humor is an effective tool to combine with instructor presence to help improve student engagement, satisfaction, and memory retention. This chapter will review recent literature on the subjects of instructor presence, boredom, and humor and make recommendations for its use.

Here Be Dragons

Big Data ◽  
2016 ◽  
pp. 1717-1735
Author(s):  
Paul Prinsloo ◽  
Sharon Slade
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
New Deal ◽  
Learning Analytics ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Student Experience ◽  
Open University ◽  
Student Responsibility ◽  
Student Data ◽  
General Data

Learning analytics is an emerging but rapidly growing field seen as offering unquestionable benefit to higher education institutions and students alike. Indeed, given its huge potential to transform the student experience, it could be argued that higher education has a duty to use learning analytics. In the flurry of excitement and eagerness to develop ever slicker predictive systems, few pause to consider whether the increasing use of student data also leads to increasing concerns. This chapter argues that the issue is not whether higher education should use student data, but under which conditions, for what purpose, for whose benefit, and in ways in which students may be actively involved. The authors explore issues including the constructs of general data and student data, and the scope for student responsibility in the collection, analysis and use of their data. An example of student engagement in practice reviews the policy created by the Open University in 2014. The chapter concludes with an exploration of general principles for a new deal on student data in learning analytics.

The Pivotal Role of Faculty in Online Student Engagement and Retention

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.

scholarly journals ValuED: A Blockchain-based Trading Platform to Encourage Student Engagement in Higher Education

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aydin Abadi ◽  
Jin Xiao ◽  
Roberto Metere ◽  
Richard Shillcock
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Academic Engagement ◽  
Source Code ◽  
Student Experience ◽  
Reputation System ◽  
Available P ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
The Uk

The provision of higher education has been changing ever more quickly in the UK and worldwide, as a result of technological, economic, and geopolitical factors. The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated such changes. The “student experience”—the interaction of students with their institution and with each other—has been changing accordingly, with less face-to-face contact. In this work, we have explored a way to improve student engagement in higher education. We describe “ValuED”, a blockchain-based trading platform using a cryptocurrency. It allows students both to buy and sell goods and services within their university community and to be rewarded for academic engagement. ValuED involves a reputation system to further incentivise participants. We describe the implementation and piloting of this platform and draw conclusions for its future use. The platform’s source code is publicly available.

scholarly journals Getting students engaged

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phil Race
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Student Satisfaction ◽  
Student Experience ◽  
Student Survey ◽  
Education Experience ◽  
League Tables

We live and work in challenging times. Now that it seems certain (post Browne, 2010) that the fees students pay for their higher education experience will double (or worse), we can't be surprised that the emphasis on 'the student experience' of higher education will intensify. Whether students are saddling themselves with ever-increasing amounts of debt to afford that higher education experience, or whether it is parents who foot the bill, the spotlight continues to focus ever more sharply on student satisfaction, alongside all available measures of the quality of student engagement in higher education. We already have league tables in which the reflection of the student experience as gained from the National Student Survey features prominently. And with diminishing budgets for teaching, class sizes are likely to continue to grow - in those disciplines where higher education survives least scathed. So how can we meet the challenge of 'getting students engaged'?

Who sets the agenda on student engagement?

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily McIntosh ◽  
Duncan Cross
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Student Experience ◽  
Education Funding ◽  
Higher Education Funding ◽  
Opinion Piece ◽  
Setting Approach ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Uk Higher Education

 The rise in UK university fees has prompted significant investment in the student experience, with increased emphasis on an agenda that promotes student engagement and partnership. Government papers, both white and green, have set out a policymaking agenda and have led to a reorganisation of the UK higher education funding structures, with the dissolution of long-standing funding bodies into the Office for Students. This enshrines chapter B6 of the QAA UK quality code for higher education with regard to student engagement and would appear to be a positive move forward. However, the Office for Students has limited student representation and this raises the question: ‘Who sets this agenda and who are the stakeholders?’ This opinion piece seeks both to highlight the necessity for a joint agenda-setting approach and to engage the community in developing a joint agenda on student engagement and partnership.

Tactics and strategies to survive ‘student engagement’, or joining the Soil Society and other stories

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-130
Author(s):  
Jacqui Close
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Social Class ◽  
Performance Indicators ◽  
Student Experience ◽  
Traditional Students ◽  
Identity Work ◽  
Widening Participation ◽  
University Life ◽  
Non Traditional Students

In the U.K., ‘student engagement’, and the related ‘student experience’, are increasingly measured, interpreted and then marketed to students as a basis on which to choose the ‘best’ place for their higher education. This article summarises and reflects on presentations from five panel members at a conference on their experience of university life after that choice had been made. The panel included non-traditional students who embodied some of the characteristics (such as age, social class and ethnicity) that have become performance indicators in relation to widening participation and engagement in higher education. This article captures how students themselves understand a concept that occupies such a prominent, if contested, position in contemporary higher education. This analysis invites one to take a closer look at the identity work necessary for students to thrive (and for some just to survive) at university against a backdrop that tends to homogenise both ‘experience’ and ‘student’.

scholarly journals Older, online and first: Recommendations for retention and success

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cathy Stone ◽  
Sarah O'Shea
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Student Experience ◽  
Student Population ◽  
University Student ◽  
Virtual Space ◽  
Older Students ◽  
Online Student ◽  
Related Research ◽  
The University

The university student population in Australia contains increasing numbers of older students returning to learning after a significant gap in their educational journey. Many are choosing to enrol online to combine their studies with other time-consuming responsibilities. This article examines the nature of this online student experience with a focus on those aged 25 and over who are the first in their families to embark on university studies. Drawing on interviews conducted with both staff and students operating in this virtual space, as well as other related research and literature, this article offers recommendations to higher education institutions and educators on ways to improve retention and ongoing participation of this cohort.

The Pivotal Role of Faculty in Online Student Engagement and Retention

2016 ◽  
pp. 1501-1525
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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