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Walking the tightrope: online student engagement experiences

Farrell, Orna ORCID: 0000-0001-9519-2380 and Brunton, James ORCID: 0000-0001-7223-0524 (2020) Walking the tightrope: online student engagement experiences. In: Eden 2020 Annual Conference, 22-24 June 2020, Timisoara, Romania (Online).

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Abstract

Studying online is like walking a tightrope for many online students as they try to balance work and caring responsibilities with their learning. This paper reports on a qualitative case study which explored the balancing act of online student engagement experiences. The study followed twenty-four DCU Connected online students over one academic year. The research question for the study was: What themes are central to online student engagement experiences? Data was collected via participant eportfolio entries and through semi-structured interviews and was then analysed thematically. Four key themes were constructed via the analytic process, which included: the importance of community, support networks, balancing study with life, and approaches to learning. The findings indicate that successful online student engagement was influenced by a number of psychosocial factors such as peer community, an engaging online teacher, and confidence and by structural factors such as lifeload and course design.

Item Type:Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Event Type:Conference
Refereed:Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords:Online learning; student engagement; student voice
Subjects:Social Sciences > Adult education
Social Sciences > Distance education
Social Sciences > Education
Social Sciences > Educational technology
DCU Faculties and Centres:DCU Faculties and Schools > NIDL (National Institute for Digital Learning)
Published in: European Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN) Proceedings. . EDEN.
Publisher:EDEN
Official URL:https://proceedings.eden-online.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Annual_2020_Timisoara_Proceedings_ISSN.pdf
Copyright Information:© 2020 The Authors
Use License:This item is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. View License
ID Code:24703
Deposited On:23 Jun 2020 16:04 by Orna Farrell . Last Modified 14 Feb 2022 15:54

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