What is Student Engagement?

Student engagement refers to the degree of effort, interest, and attention that students dedicate to the learning process (Klem & Connell, 2004). It encompasses their active involvement in learning tasks, their curiosity about the subject matter, and their focus during lessons.
There are three categories of engagement - behavioral, cognitive, and affective/emotional aspects (Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004). 

• Behavioral engagement refers to observable actions that signal involvement in the learning process. 

• Cognitive engagement involves the mental effort to comprehend complex ideas – a deeper level of thinking. 

• Affective or emotional engagement relates to students’ emotional connection to learning such as a sense of belonging, curiosity, enjoyment, and overall positive feelings.

These three interrelated dimensions together characterize the quality and degree of a student's active engagement with educational activities and content (Fredricks et al., 2004). 

Why is Student Engagement Important?

Student engagement is crucial because it directly influences learning outcomes and academic success in both online and face-to-face courses (Boulton et al., 2019).
Engaged students are more likely to:

• Score higher grades and complete their courses (Li & Xue, 2023).

• Be more satisfied with their college experience (Tendhar et al., 2013).

• Retain information and understand concepts deeply (Kuh, 2009; Trowler, 2010). 

• Have a positive attitude towards learning (Zepke, 2014; Zepke & Leach, 2010). 

• Persist and continue in college (Kuh et al., 2008). 

• Achieve their academic goals (Carini et al., 2006).

What are Some Best Practices for Engagement?

It is important to note that student engagement is a multidimensional concept. It could be most effective to combine the strategies below aligned with the course objectives and tailored to the students' needs and context. List below are some strategies that could be used to promote student engagement.

1. Teaching strategies

• Use inclusive teaching strategies such as setting clear expectations, encouraging respectful dialogue, valuing student diversity, and avoiding stereotypes. 

• When designing content, use real-life stories, demonstrations, or personal examples to get the students emotionally involved.

• Make it personal and meaningful, for the instructor, and students.

• Show relevance and values of the learning task (live and online).

• Help students discover their personal connections to the course content.

• Use collaborative activities, group work, discussions, and projects.

2. Meaningful assignments

• Use assessments that build on students’ foundational knowledge.

• Use authentic assignments including real-world applications, simulated activities, and community partners.

• Use instructions that can challenge students and push them out of their comfort zone, thereby resulting in higher levels of effort and achievement.

• Develop coursework and create real-life projects that are relevant to the students.

• Promote opportunities for students to interact with their peers both on and off campus.

3. Starting out positive

• Engaging students on the first day of class could set the tone for the rest of the semester.

• Use activities that promote a sense of belonging, and incorporate students’ interests.

• Get students excited by explaining ‘the why’ behind the learning journey.

• Help students to begin to develop knowledge and skills that will serve them throughout the semester and beyond.

• Dive into the course to help show students the value and help them gain confidence.

• Talk about the big ideas of the course and get excited about the major projects.

4. Power of relationships

• Learning is a social activity so building relationships with students is critical. 

• Establish relationships at the beginning and include group activities.

• Build academic confidence, groups, and one-on-one.

• Create experiential learning opportunities – community events, modeling, or shadowing.

• Help students build professional networks.

5. Give Feedback

• Feedback is one of the most powerful ways faculty can help students learn and develop skills.

• Create formative assessment opportunities like doing project check-ins, splitting major projects into sections, and encouraging peer review. 

• Written and typed feedback is much better than hand-written for student understanding.

• Ungraded formative assessment allows the students opportunities to concentrate on the feedback and improve their learning.

• Peer feedback can help model effective feedback.

• Drafts for written assignments with opportunities for feedback and revisions.

Tips/ best practice

• 10 Tips for Engaging Students -  Explore ways to engage your students

Readings and Article

• An Instructional Design Framework for Fostering Student Engagement in Online Learning Environments - Learn how to engage your students in an online environment

• Engaging Students - Learn more about engaging students

References

1. Boulton CA, Hughes E, Kent C, Smith JR, Williams (2019). Student engagement and wellbeing over time at a higher education institution. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0225770. 
2. Klem, A.M., & Connell, J.P. (2004). Relationships matter: Linking teacher support to student engagement and achievement. Journal of School Health, 74(7), 262–273. doi:10.1111/j.1746-1561.2004.tb08283.x   
3. Kuh, G. D. (2009). The National Survey of Student Engagement: Conceptual and Empirical Foundations. New Directions for Institutional Research, 2009(141), 5-20.
4. Kuh, G. D., Cruce, T. M., Shoup, R., Kinzie, J., & Gonyea, R. M. (2008). Unmasking the effects of student engagement on first-year college grades and persistence. The journal of higher education, 79(5), 540-563.
5. Li, J., & Xue, E. (2023). Dynamic Interaction between Student Learning Behaviour and Learning Environment: Meta-Analysis of Student Engagement and Its Influencing Factors. Behavioral Sciences, 13(1), 59. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs13010059
6. Mebert, L., Barnes, R., Dalley, J., Gawarecki, L., Ghazi-Nezami, F., Shafer, G., … Yezbick, E. (2020). Fostering student engagement through a real-world, collaborative project across disciplines and institutions. Higher Education Pedagogies, 5(1), 30–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/23752696.2020.1750306 
7. Tendhar, C., Culver, S.M., & Burge, P.L. (2013). Validating the National survey of student engagement (NSSE) at a research-intensive university. Journal of Education and Training Studies, 1(1), 182–193. doi:10.11114/jets.v1i1.70  
8. Trowler, V. (2010). Student Engagement Literature Review. The Higher Education Academy.
9. Zepke, N. (2014). Student engagement research in higher education: questioning an academic orthodoxy. Teaching in Higher Education, 19(6), 697-708.