LAUREATE ONLINE EDUCATION /UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOLFACULTY CONFERENCE

Exploring high impact practices in the online setting

Project team

• Dr Peter Kahn, DoS, EdD Higher Education• Lucy Everington, Research Assistant• Dr Kathleen Kelm, Director of Faculty

Development and Faculty Manager, Computing Programmes

• Dr Iain Reid, DoS, MSc OSCM• Dr Francine Watkins, DoS, MPH

Introduction

• A mixed picture exists around student engagement for 100%-online learning:– It has been clearly established that learning

technology can usefully support student engagement.– Specific uses of learning technology identified as

having a ‘high impact’ on student engagement. – Low levels of student retention for many fully-online

courses.– Underlying basis for understanding student

engagement remains limited; many studies based on establishing connections through surveys.

Research questions

• To what extent can student engagement be explained through reflexivity?– How do high-impact practices in the online setting

influence student reflexivity? – How do we help students to take responsibility for

their learning?

The study

• Multiple case study on student engagement for fully-online masters degrees in Public Health, Management and Computer Science: – Framed around realist social theory, drawing out

the role of reflexivity in framing intentional forms of human action.

– Communicative reflexivity, autonomous reflexivity, meta-reflexivity and fractured reflexivity.

– Corporate agency underpinned by co-reflexivity

Study design

• Stage 1: analysis of postings to (asynchronous) discussion boards for 22 learners.

• Stage 2: semi-structured interviews with a sub-group of 8 students.

• Experiences considered for each student primarily in relation to two contrasting module designs.

• Data analysis using the qualitative software, with deductive/inductive approaches to category identification.

Theoretical findings (Reflexivity)

• Given learning environments triggered rich expressions of reflexivity as students took responsibility in the face of uncertainty– High impact practices expect courses of

action grounded in different modes of reflexivity

– Particular variation seen in relation to communicative reflexivity and the co-reflexivity needed to progress mutual actions

Theoretical findings (Challenge)

• Uncertainty provides evident challenges to students.

• Scope for dissonance between the modes of reflexivity, practices and dispositions expected by a learning environment and the profile of the student.

• But the student still needs to take responsibility.

Theoretical findings (Influences on engagement)

• Task-related practices– Habits established around the timing of tasks, and

the conduct of sub-tasks (e.g. reading, organising thoughts and writing a post).

• Social relations and practices– Specific strategies employed to build corporate

agency; co-reflexivity supported through specific inter-personal relations.

• Beliefs, dispositions and affectivity– Attitudes towards knowledge; self-efficacy.

Generating mutual understanding

Communicative practice

Selected quotation

Invitation “I think at the beginning I wasn’t asking that many questions, either. I had my answer and I wasn’t asking a question to get a follow up on my answer again.”

Provocation “I guess the first thing that I do is challenge someone else’s idea ... but the end product can often lead to the exact opposite where it can change in my mind.”

Identifying a common interest

“I try to bring my own experiences, as there will be some variations on this as people are in different countries and will have had different experiences.”

Reaching out “I just look at students who are less engaging in the class showing that I can also appreciate their posts. This is how I engage with the classroom.”

Defending “On some occasions I felt like I had to defend my previous answer but I’d hoped that I had done that by providing extra evidence rather than being argumentative.”

Encouragement “When people like what you write then they watch out for the next posting, and that works for me, because I get compliments and then want to do more research.”

Examples of student profiles

• M1 – no evidence of communicative/co- reflexivity; fixed view of knowledge.

• PH2 – emphasis on autonomous reflexivity, with wider inter-personal relations not engaged; but dissertation/other tasks entail interactions with others.

• C2 – balanced indications against all modes of reflexivity.

Implications for practice (Design)

• Understanding and designing programmes – Analyse the profile of reflexivity, dispositions,

task-related practices and social practices.– Designing programmes to reflect an

understanding of how students engage.

Implications for practice (Corporate agency)

• Integrating further social relations into programmes of study – Taking advantage of technology to introduce

additional partners into a discussion or to highlight their perspectives (e.g. podcasts)

• Facilitation to assist students in progressing joint concerns– an instructor focus on catalysing corporate agency

Implications for practice (Tasks)

• Tasks that support corporate agency– Group tasks, whether discussions, projects, … – Activity that offers a ‘mutual’ take on the internet,

as with social media and ‘objective’ - ‘trip advisor’ data internet searches.

• Assisting with task-related uncertainty– Helping students to establish new habitual

practices/sub-tasks – Additional guidance, computer-generated

‘facilitation’/prompts, raising questions that lead to new actions, …

Implications for practice (Reflexivity)

• Support students in exercising reflexivity, especially where a mode is unfamiliar: – Assistance in exercising given forms of reflexivity –

tools, advice, FAQs, computer-generated ‘facilitation’/prompts.

– Awareness of one’s own profile of reflexivity and dispositions – online test linked to modes of reflexivity, tasks that ask one to display awareness.

– Personal development activity to increase capacity for reflexivity, whether integrated or stand alone (e.g. discussion around establishing task-related practices).

Longer-term impact

• Study linked to an on-going programme of research– Theoretical, empirical and practical strands

• Development of new high-impact practices suited to the online setting– Imagination and commitment is needed to

develop new forms of practice

Best in class?

• Combining student engagement with organisational concerns – Extensive innovation

occurring around online learning (MOOCs, intensive forms of education, social media, OER, ...)

Related reading

• Kahn P E (2013) ‘Theorising student engagement in higher education’, British Educational Research Journal, (available online 7th October 2013 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.3121/full)