Improving Student Engagement in Online Courses

M.D. B. Sarder

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Conference: 2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
Publication Date: June 15, 2014
Start Date: June 15, 2014
End Date: June 18, 2014
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: Tricks of the Trade
Tagged Division: New Engineering Educators
Page Count: 17
Page Numbers: 24.719.1 - 24.719.17
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--20611
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/20611
Download Count: 1216

Paper Authors

biography

M.D. B. Sarder University of Southern Mississippi

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Dr. Sarder is an associate professor and program coordinator of the industrial engineering technology program at the University of Southern Mississippi (USM). He is also an assistant director of the center for logistics, trade and transportation. At the USM, he revamped his program by developing as many as fourteen new courses, implementing hands on experience in courses, and delivering online courses for distant students. Dr. Sarder is very active in engineering and technology education research. He has published a book and more than fifty articles in various areas of industrial engineering including K-12 research. He is actively involved with professional society activities including IIE and ASEE. He is the editor in chief of the International Journal of Logistics & Transportation Research and serving in the editorial board for several other journals.

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Abstract

Improving Student Engagement in Online CoursesDistance education is a learning model in which students and instructors are separated bylocation and/or time, and in which students may complete courses or programs without attendingscheduled classes in a specific location (E-learning). Distance learners are growing in numbersand universities capitalizing on this segment by expanding their course offerings. Since thedevelopment of distance learning is relatively new, institutes of higher learning are stilldiscovering that teaching methods implemented in traditional courses may not necessarilytranslate directing into the distance learning model. This paper will highlight a number of issuesconcerning distance learning for institutions of higher education and what teaching methods maybe implemented by professors to facilitate student engagement in distance learning.There are a number of teaching approaches that institutions of higher learning may implement inorder to engage distance learners in online course, one of which is the Engagement BasedLearning and Teaching (EBLT) approach. According to the Engagement Based Learning andTeaching (EBLT) approach there are two basic elements that provide an effective method ofestablishing a facilitation technique for more student engagement. These elements are pedagogyand preconditions which will be covered in detailed in this paper. The most critical disadvantageof online education is the lack of appropriate interactivity in the class discussion. This paperdiscusses various methods of improving students’ engagement in online course delivery withexamples at the implementing university. The Industrial Engineering Technology (IET) programat our university has been converted to an online program as other programs are also going to thesame direction. As we are switching to online course delivery, we are actively researching waysto foster critical thinking and maintain adequate real time communication and interaction withstudents. Our task is to design alternate course delivery that offers students a variety of learningstyles and preferences in interactive ways. We have implemented enforced sequential viewing oflecture videos and virtual class meetings in some of our courses as part of students’ engagementinitiative. We have found interesting and positive correlation of improved students learning. Thispaper will discuss the detail design of experiments and results of the implementations.

Citation
Format

Sarder, M. B. (2014, June), Improving Student Engagement in Online Courses Paper presented at 2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Indianapolis, Indiana. 10.18260/1-2--20611

TY - CPAPER
AB - Improving Student Engagement in Online CoursesDistance education is a learning model in which students and instructors are separated bylocation and/or time, and in which students may complete courses or programs without attendingscheduled classes in a specific location (E-learning). Distance learners are growing in numbersand universities capitalizing on this segment by expanding their course offerings. Since thedevelopment of distance learning is relatively new, institutes of higher learning are stilldiscovering that teaching methods implemented in traditional courses may not necessarilytranslate directing into the distance learning model. This paper will highlight a number of issuesconcerning distance learning for institutions of higher education and what teaching methods maybe implemented by professors to facilitate student engagement in distance learning.There are a number of teaching approaches that institutions of higher learning may implement inorder to engage distance learners in online course, one of which is the Engagement BasedLearning and Teaching (EBLT) approach. According to the Engagement Based Learning andTeaching (EBLT) approach there are two basic elements that provide an effective method ofestablishing a facilitation technique for more student engagement. These elements are pedagogyand preconditions which will be covered in detailed in this paper. The most critical disadvantageof online education is the lack of appropriate interactivity in the class discussion. This paperdiscusses various methods of improving students’ engagement in online course delivery withexamples at the implementing university. The Industrial Engineering Technology (IET) programat our university has been converted to an online program as other programs are also going to thesame direction. As we are switching to online course delivery, we are actively researching waysto foster critical thinking and maintain adequate real time communication and interaction withstudents. Our task is to design alternate course delivery that offers students a variety of learningstyles and preferences in interactive ways. We have implemented enforced sequential viewing oflecture videos and virtual class meetings in some of our courses as part of students’ engagementinitiative. We have found interesting and positive correlation of improved students learning. Thispaper will discuss the detail design of experiments and results of the implementations.
AU - M.D. B. Sarder
CY - Indianapolis, Indiana
DA - 2014/06/15
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Improving Student Engagement in Online Courses
UR - https://peer.asee.org/20611
DO - 10.18260/1-2--20611
ER -