Measuring and modelling student engagement in online and campus-based higher education

Hamish Coates, University of Melbourne

Abstract

This study investigates the engagement of campus-based students who are using online learning systems in their study. It begins by developing a perspective on contemporary campus-based university education. This perspective captures important changes taking place around universities. It links these changes with, among other things, the almost ubiquitous adoption and deployment of powerful online learning management systems. While these systems have the capacity to introduce substantial change to campus-based university education, surprisingly little is known about their broad influence on student learning. Contemporary student engagement research is proposed as an idea that could help develop such knowledge. The idea of student engagement is introduced and positioned in terms of conversations about higher education. An understanding of engagement is developed which sees it as a reaction to alternative approaches to valuing university education, and as the culmination of specific trends in higher education research. Attention is placed on identifying key assumptions underpinning the idea of engagement, and which guide analysis in this study. It is claimed that student engagement is important because it opens analysis to explore salient aspects of the student experience, because of its intrinsic value for students, and because it provides a constructive means of indexing the quality and effectiveness of university education. Analysis of the idea of engagement provides a foundation for delineating its theoretical ties. This is undertaken by employing an existing framework to direct a critical view of previous research on university student learning and development. Through the findings of past studies are used to generate a preliminary theoretical understanding of campus-based student engagement in terms of five broad benchmarks: academic challenge, active and collaborative learning, student-faculty interaction, enriching educational experiences, and supportive campus environment.