Arthur Chickering is Distinguished Professor of Higher Education at Memphis State University. On leave from the Directorship of the Center for the Study of Higher Education at Memphis State, he is Visiting Professor at George Mason University. Zelda Gamson is a sociologist who holds appointments at the John W. McCormack Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Massachusetts-Boston and in the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan.

Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education: Faculty Inventory. Institutional Inventory.

Digital technology has become a central aspect of higher education, inherently affecting all aspects of the student experience. It has also been linked to an increase in behavioural, affective and cognitive student engagement, the facilitation of which is a central concern of educators. In order to delineate the complex nexus of technology and student engagement, this article systematically maps research from 243 studies published between 2007 and 2016. Research within the corpus was predominantly undertaken within the United States and the United Kingdom, with only limited research undertaken in the Global South, and largely focused on the fields of Arts & Humanities, Education, and Natural Sciences, Mathematics & Statistics. Studies most often used quantitative methods, followed by mixed methods, with little qualitative research methods employed. Few studies provided a definition of student engagement, and less than half were guided by a theoretical framework. The courses investigated used blended learning and text-based tools (e.g. discussion forums) most often, with undergraduate students as the primary target group. Stemming from the use of educational technology, behavioural engagement was by far the most often identified dimension, followed by affective and cognitive engagement. This mapping article provides the grounds for further exploration into discipline-specific use of technology to foster student engagement.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s41239-019-0176-8.pdf

Mapping research in student engagement and educational technology in higher education: a systematic evidence map

As the fields of learning analytics and learning design mature, the convergence and synergies between the two are becoming an important area for research This paper intends to summarize the main outcomes of a systematic review of empirical evidence on learning analytics for learning design Moreover, this paper presents an overview of what and how learning analytics have been used to inform learning design decisions and in what contexts The search was performed in seven academic databases, resulting in 43 papers included in the main analysis The results from the review depict the ongoing design patterns and learning phenomena that emerged from the synergy that learning analytics and learning design impose on the current status of learning technologies Finally, this review stresses that future research should consider developing a framework on how to capture and systematize learning design data grounded in learning analytics and learning theory, and document what learning design choices made by educators influence subsequent learning activities and performances over time

/pdf/learning-analytics-for-learning-design-a-systematic-3n3to6mdzn.pdf

Learning Analytics for Learning Design: A Systematic Literature Review of Analytics-Driven Design to Enhance Learning

The flipped learning approach has been growing in popularity in both higher education and K-12, especially for its potential to increase active learning and student engagement. However, further research is needed to understand exactly how the flipped approach enhances student engagement. This narrative systematic review synthesises literature published between 2012 and 2018, focused on the flipped learning approach in K-12 contexts, and indexed in 7 international databases. 107 articles, book chapters, dissertations, conference papers and grey literature were included for review, and the results are discussed against a bioecological model of student engagement. The results indicate that the majority of research has been undertaken in North American and Asian high schools, heavily focused on student perceptions of flipped learning and achievement within STEM subjects, especially Mathematics, with a slight preference for quantitative methods. Studies in this review found the approach to overwhelmingly support student engagement, with 93% of studies citing at least one dimension of behavioural, affective or cognitive engagement, whereas 50% of studies reported facets of disengagement. Collaborative technologies such as Google Docs, Google Classroom and Edmodo were particularly linked to engagement, with videos not created by teachers more likely to lead to disengagement. Only 12% included a definition of student engagement, and less than half used a theoretical framework. Future empirical research should ensure that all contextual information is included, including year level of student participants, that multiple methods of both quantitative and qualitative data collection are included, and close attention is paid to grounding research in theory. Further research is needed on parent, teacher and school leader perceptions, as well as longitudinal and multiple-class studies.

/pdf/facilitating-student-engagement-through-the-flipped-learning-1my9us0fe9.pdf

Facilitating student engagement through the flipped learning approach in K-12: A systematic review

How to promote engagement and achievement in flipped classroom has been a critical research issue. It has been recognized that a course design enticing students' behaviour, emotional and cognitive engagements could promote achievement. Among the different types of engagements, behaviour engagement is relatively easier to measure and collect, especially with the help of learning management systems (LMS). This study focuses on the exploration of how online behaviour engagement affects achievement in flipped classroom with a problem-centered learning flow consisting of activation, demonstration, application, and integration. Learning data collected from ten courses was analysed. All the courses were conducted on the Moodle platform, with a total of 488 undergraduate students enrolled from 2010 to 2015Â at a university in Taiwan. A model depicting how online behaviour engagement affects achievement was developed using the partial least squares SEM (PLS-SEM) method. Findings demonstrate that engagement in problem-solving activities has a significant effect on achievement. Furthermore, engagement in self-assessment and self-reflection activities have a significant direct effect on engagement in online studies and social interaction, which in turn have a significant direct effect on engagement in problem-solving activities. Most important of all, the effect of the engagement in self-assessment and self-reflection on achievement is mediated by the engagement in problem-solving activities. Based on these findings, it is argued that the design of attractive and progressive problem-solving activities is at the heart of an effective flipped classroom, and promoting a learning culture of self-reflection and self-assessment helps trigger active engagements in other online learning activities.

An exploration of online behaviour engagement and achievement in flipped classroom supported by learning management system

This study analyzes the impact of an instructor on the students' engagement using learning analytics approach by tracking one university's log data of teaching and learning activities in a web-based learning platform. Based on the tracking data and theoretical analysis, this study builds a teaching and learning interaction activity model to show how the instructor's course preparation and assistance activities affect different dimensions of student engagement activities and the relationship between these activities. The results reveal that an instructor's course preparation is significantly positively related to the students' viewing activities, while instructor's guidance and assistance has a significant impact on the students' completing learning tasks. The study also indicates that the students' viewing activities have a direct positive influence on their completing learning tasks activities. Students' completing learning tasks exert direct positive influence on their interaction for learning, while their viewing activities have an indirect impact on their interaction activities.

Examining the necessary condition for engagement in an online learning environment based on learning analytics approach: The role of the instructor

The degree of students actively engaging in learning greatly affects their academic achievement, cognitive development as well as education quality. Assessing student engagement in blended learning environment could help instructors and administrators understanding the quality of student learning, improving instructional design, in order to enhance student engagement in this environment. Based on the analysis of characteristic of blended learning environment, pivotal measurement indicators of student engagement, and related student engagement instruments, this paper designs and constructs a student engagement scale framework of blended learning environment in higher education, including the initially developed item pool.

Initial Development Process of a Student Engagement Scale in Blended Learning Environment

This paper uses log data of teaching and learning activities in a web-based learning platform, selects two universities implementing different online learning promotion strategies as the cases, and conducts the group differences analysis based on the hypothesized structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze group interactive activities in two universities' online learning environment. The results demonstrate that compared with the university implementing the bottom-up strategy, for the university adopting top-down strategy, instructors' guidance and assistance activities have much more positive impact on students' learning reflection activities, and students' learning reflection activities also influence more on instructor-students interaction activities. For both of the two universities, students' viewing activities all positively affect students' learning reflection activities. This study also recommends that the university which adopts the bottom-up strategy should further improve the online teaching methods, use a variety of information tools to promote students' positive and deep learning.

Comparison of the Impact of Two Online Learning Promotion Strategies on Group Interaction Activities

The integration of virtual reality (VR) and education is a key way to realize the modernization of higher education. Instructors’ competencies directly affect students’ learning experiences and achievements. Based on the IBSTPI competency standards compiled by the International Board of Standards for Training, Performance, and Instruction (IBSTPI), this study developed an instructors’ competencies scale suitable for the VR environment from the perspective of students’ learning experience and conducted an empirical research on the current situation of instructors’ competencies in VR environment. The scale categorizes of instructors’ competencies included six dimensions: establishing and maintaining learning motivation competencies, expressing competencies, questioning competencies, giving feedback competencies, promoting knowledge consolidation competencies, and facilitating knowledge transfer competencies. The results showed that the competencies of university instructors in VR environments have been in the upper middle level and there were differences in the level of instructors’ competencies in different dimensions. Necessary is for universities and instructors to optimize the cultivation of instructors’ competencies in VR environment.

/pdf/the-empirical-research-on-university-instructors-3ngwsj62.pdf

Jing Ma

Papers

Examining the necessary condition for engagement in an online learning environment based on learning analytics approach: The role of the instructor

Initial Development Process of a Student Engagement Scale in Blended Learning Environment

Comparison of the Impact of Two Online Learning Promotion Strategies on Group Interaction Activities

The empirical research on university instructors’ competencies in virtual reality environment from the perspective of students’ learning experience