Revealing impact factors on student engagement: Learning analytics adoption in online and blended courses in higher education

Si FAN, Lihua CHEN, Manoj NAIR, Saurabh GARG, Soonja YEOM, Gerry KREGOR, Yu YANG, Yanjun WANG

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlespeer-review

20 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This study aimed to identify factors influencing student engagement in online and blended courses at one Australian regional university. It applied a data science approach to learning and teaching data gathered from the learning management system used at this university. Data were collected and analysed from 23 subjects, spanning over 5500 student enrolments and 406 lecturer and tutor roles, over a five-year period. Based on a theoretical framework adapted from Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework by Garrison et al. (2000), the data were segregated into three groups for analysis: Student Engagement, Course Content and Teacher Input. The data analysis revealed a positive correlation between Student Engagement and Teacher Input, and interestingly, a negative correlation between Student Engagement and Course Content when a certain threshold was exceeded. The findings of the study offer useful suggestions for future course design, and pedagogical approaches teachers can adopt to foster student engagement. Copyright © 2021 by the authors.

Original languageEnglish
Article number608
JournalEducation Sciences
Volume11
Issue number10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2021

Citation

Fan, S., Chen, L., Nair, M., Garg, S., Yeom, S., Kregor, G., Yang, Y., & Wang, Y. (2021). Revealing impact factors on student engagement: Learning analytics adoption in online and blended courses in higher education. Education Sciences, 11(10), Article 608. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11100608

Keywords

  • Learning analytics
  • Higher education
  • Student engagement
  • Student retention
  • Learning management system (LMS)

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