“Learner engagement” is a common terminology amongst teachers, educators, and educational institutions. It also often appears in the academic literature and is given such an emphasis in many instances where technology enhanced learning such as blended learning is discussed. The question, however, is what do we mean by learner engagement, and why learner engagement is given such prominence?
The interest in learner engagement started approximately 80 years ago with Ralph Tyler’s research on the relationship between student time spent on studying and their learning achievements. Since then, the concept has been evolved considerably and various aspects of learner engagement such as why and how learner engagement occurs, and the effects of learner engagement on student success have been widely discussed. Interestingly, the efforts continue!
Learner engagement is often referred as a measure that reflects the quality and quantity of learner participation in a learning environment which can be regular F2F, fully online, or hybrid learning such as blended learning. Learner engagement is a broad, complex, and psychological phenomenon, and there are many dimensions such as environmental conditions and individual dispositions that are related to the quality and quantity of one’s learning efforts. This may perhaps be part of the reason why properly understanding this concept has been relatively hard for many people.
Learner engagement encompasses different types of engagements and experiences of a student. One type of engagement is behavioural engagement – the degree to which students physically engage in learning activities. The indicators of behavioural engagement reflect observable actions which may include time and efforts one put in learning activities and their interactions with peers and teachers. A second type of engagement is cognitive engagement – the extent to which students expand mental efforts to master the subject content. Cognitive engagement largely includes motivational aspects, and indicators of this type of engagement can include persistence to meet the academic requirements, deep processing of information through critical thinking, and the active construction of knowledge. A third type of engagement is affective engagement which is essentially students’ emotional reactions to learning. Affective engagement explains how students feel about a particular topic, teacher, or a delivery method, and is often assessed through self-reported measures. Key indicators of affective engagement can be student attitudes, values, and interests towards learning, and student perceived belongings in their learning environment. Even though each type of the engagement has distinct features, if we dig deep into these indicators, one may see some overlaps across the three types of engagement.
Learner engagement can be described as the “core” of any learning environment because, without adequate efforts and time of students, they are unlikely to achieve the expected learning outcomes. It is, thus, critical for teachers to use appropriate strategies to increase learner engagement. This is more important in technology enhanced learning such as blended learning because such learning methods often limit teacher-student F2F interactions and require technological tools to do the job. Some guidance for improving learner engagement in online learning environments can be found here in one of my previous posts. Take a look!