Encouraging and Increasing Student Engagement and Participation in an Online Classroom

Advances in technology have increased opportunities for students to participate in online courses. While some instructors are beginning their careers teaching only online courses, others are discovering a need to teach sections of courses online after they have enjoyed a long career teaching in a traditional classroom. In either situation, it is important for instructors to recognize that students in online learning environments require the use of different strategies for encouraging engagement and participation in class. In this chapter, the author describes the challenges that students and instructors face specifically in the online learning environment as well as strategies for success, including how to maximize the impact of students' experiences and prior knowledge, using multiple platforms to deliver information, discouraging procrastination, setting clear expectations, encouraging individuality, capitalizing on diversity, and providing and utilizing helpful resources.

“I'm Not Simply Dealing with Some Heartless Computer”

This chapter provides a case study example using cross-case analysis (Merriam, 2001) of digital mentoring within an online Master's level literacy course at a large public university in the Southwest United States. Two mentors provided individualized video conference sessions, using Blackboard Collaborate™ to 28 students (mentees). Data included written reflections from students as well as transcripts from selected videoconference sessions. Structured synchronous mentoring sessions provided a predictable framework for students and mentors alike. This chapter provides an analysis of the students' perceptions of the conferences, the types of discourse patterns and language analysis of the conferences, as well as description of themes and trends across the data. Suggestions on the usefulness of the conferences as well as the structure of mentoring sessions are described in the chapter. Established and emerging models of mentorship and e-development are outlined and utilized to frame the analyses and future research directions.

A Mixed Methods Examination of Instructor Social Presence in Accelerated Online Courses

Social Presence theory seeks to explain how people present themselves as being “there” and “real” while using a communication medium. Most studies on social presence focus on how students present themselves and/or are perceived as being “there” and “real” in computer-mediated environments. However, to date, very few studies have focused on how instructors establish and maintain their own social presence in online learning environments. The following study explored the phenomenon of instructor social presence in accelerated online courses. The results suggest that the construct of presence is more complicated than previously thought and that future studies should employ multiple methods to further explore the concept of instructor social presence.

The Pivotal Role of Faculty in Online Student Engagement and Retention

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.

Deepening Understanding of Multicultural Online Education

In the 21st century, online education provides an alternative instructional medium for teachers and students in United States educational systems and the world at large. Technology transforms how, when, and where students can learn, as well as the trends and use of instructional tools by students and teachers in the teaching-learning process. Online learning has developed during the past two decades to support traditional face-to-face classroom instruction and provides an opportunity for students to “interact with faculty and peers about substantive matters” (National Survey of Student Engagement, 2007, p. 7). The increase in minority students within U.S. schools has created a rise in socio-cultural, personal histories, educational, religious, and language/linguistic differences within the virtual classroom, requiring online instructors who teach in these contexts to be prepared to meet students' diverse needs. Despite the increase in online instruction, many questions remain unanswered with regards to how one group of minorities, particularly, English learners, adjust to instructional processes and teacher presence in an online learning environment. This chapter addresses the role of teacher presence in multicultural and online education, potential challenges of online learning for English learners, and teacher presence in multicultural online education.

More Teaching in Less Time

There are a plethora of best practices highlighting strategies to personalize the online learning experience, promote interaction and establish teaching presence. Despite this knowledge, a gap remains between online instructors' pedagogical knowledge and teaching behaviors. This discrepancy is largely a function of time. With a wide range of instructional tasks to complete, faculty struggle to balance all the demands of the online classroom. To maximize student success and satisfaction, it is essential that faculty effectively manage their time to engage in instructional behaviors with the greatest impact. This chapter overviews strategies to help online instructors: 1) create an efficient online classroom; 2) manage teaching time more effectively; and 3) prioritize their time investment to promote interaction, presence and participation.

Building Interaction Online

In higher education in recent years the educational value of blog journals for facilitating student engagement, reflection and learning has been emphasized (Chu, Kwan, & Warning, 2012; Ellison & Wu, 2008; Richardson, 2005; Yang, 2009). According to Williams and Jacobs (2004), blogs are seen as a ‘transformative educational tool', which assists in the development of ‘reflective and critical thinking skills' (Joshi & Chugh, 2009). This chapter critically analyzes the reflective and collaborative value of two different systems of blog journaling used by postgraduate student to reflect on their arts industry internships. Firstly Blogger (https://www.blogger.com), used between 2008 and 2012 and secondly, journal blogging in the Learning Management System (LMS) of Moodle (2014) are critiqued in terms their ability to promote student engagement, reflection, connection and collaboration. There is particular emphasis on how recent blog journals (2014) reflect how students' confidence, awareness and understandings evolve as they develop professional expertise.

Teaching and Learning Online

This chapter explores online learning and the pedagogical techniques needed to create an effective learning environment. In addition, it emphasizes the advances in contemporary online learning tracing its difficult beginning and the progress made due to advances made in technology especially the World Wide Web and the Internet. The chapter also discusses the importance of immediacy in online learning, and its ability to allow students to learn from anywhere and at any time. Student problems include lack of access to the technology, readiness to work online, and the erroneous impression that they know the technology more than the instructor. Interaction includes the effective application of scenarios of student and content, interaction between instructor and students, and the interaction between students which help promote social presence. We strongly believe the application of the afore-mentioned strategies will ensure successful development and implementations of an effective online course.

Ensuring Presence in Online Learning Environments

Online learning in higher education has rapidly grown in recent years and has become the norm. However, pedagogical aspects on online learning environments are still developing. This chapter focuses on one foundational aspect of online and blended learning known as presence. First, the concept of presence in online learning is described i.e. teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence. Secondly, strategies for ensuring presence are discussed from different angles: course design, course instructors and course facilitators, and course participants. Thirdly, the implications for future research are outlined. This chapter enhances the research on the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework a useful guide to the design of learning experiences that support learners' critical reflection and engagement within collaborative online learning environments.

Preparing Online Learning Readiness with Learner-Content Interaction

Online learning readiness is fundamental to student successful participation, presence, and interaction in online courses. Effective facilitation of these key components depends on sound instructional design. In self-directed online environments, learner-content interaction and scaffolding self-regulated learning have been found of primary importance to generate meaningful learning. To provide a solution to the challenges of interoperability of various functions in synchronous online learning environments, this chapter presents a case study about the design and development of a self-paced orientation to help students acquire online learning readiness. Learner-content interaction is strategically utilized in the design to scaffold self-regulated learning. The results of the case study demonstrate that this orientation positively prepares students to be ready for learning in a synchronous online environment. The approach can be of practical use to individuals and groups.