THE SHIFT TO ONLINE EDUCATION DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
THE SHIFT TO ONLINE EDUCATION DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC:
MEASURING STUDENT ENGAGEMENT IN REMOTE LEARNING
Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a major interruption in the global education system. It has resulted in many schools being shut down across the United States and many children being out of the classroom. As a result, education has changed significantly with the rise of online education in which teaching and learning is taken on remotely through different types of digital platforms. During this unexpected and difficult time, the educational community has made numerous efforts to maintain learning continuity. With many schools quickly replacing face-to-face instructions with virtual learning, teachers and students have had to adapt to a new way of learning. Students have had to rely mostly on their own resources to continue learning remotely through the internet using online learning tools.Perhaps most importantly, the pandemic raises questions about the effectiveness of student engagement in an online environment. In the case of students who have to entirely independently navigate their own learning at home, traditional methods used to measure student engagement may not always work. In such cases, educators must go beyond for their students and need to find alternatives methods and tools to measure engagement.
I personally chose this topic of student engagement in remote learning because I think it is a relevant topic in today world. Most of the content is now being delivered through technology, which makes interactions between teachers and students become more challenging than ever. While many school districts must ensure that all students have access to the internet and computers for successful remote learning, maintaining student engagement is also an important topic that needs to be discussed. Even though many researches have focused on the important of student engagement to online learning, they have not discussed much about the ways and methods which teachers are using to measure the “effectiveness” of student engagement.
The research questions guiding this research are the following:
- How is student engagement measured in a traditional face-to-face learning environment?
- How is remote learning affecting student engagement?
- What methods have been used to measure student engagement in an online learning environment?
Literature Review
Student Engagement
Engagement is one of the key components of students’ success in the classroom. Early studies of student engagement typically focused on analyzing “time-on-task behaviors” of students inside of the classroom (Chapman, 2003). More recently, student engagement is considered as the extent to which students actively engage by thinking, conversating, and interacting during a lesson and with other students and the teacher (Kuh, 2003). Natriello (1984) defined student engagement as “participating in the activities offered as part of the school program” (p.14). In other words, students learn best when they actively put their time and efforts into studying the subject and partaking in educational activities. Engaged students do more than being present at school and showing their academic performance; they make an effort toward their learning, challenge themselves with difficult subjects, self-regulate their behaviors to reach their academic goals (Christenson, Reschly, & Wylie, 2012). Student engagement has been used to describe students’ willingness to participate in different activities such as attending classes, following teachers’ instruction throughout a lesson, participating in learning activities, and submitting required assignments on time.
Social Construction
According to social constructivism, learning is a is a cooperative process in which students interact and work collaboratively with one another. Vygotsky (1978) emphasizes that there is a difference between what students can do independently and what they can perform with others. While there are tasks that students can complete by themselves, some other tasks require them to work collaboratively with other students and teachers to complete. For example, while students are at home doing virtual learning, they can collaborate with each other by proving comments or feedback, asking or answering questions, and demonstrating tasks for each other. Students can also learn by observing each other’s behaviors (Bandura, 1961).
Traditional Measurement of Student Engagement
There are different methods used to measure student engagement in the classroom. The first method that teachers often use to determine student engagement is evaluating students’ work. Teachers analyze students’ work samples by looking at learning strategies that students use in their assignments, projects, and journals. Students who engage in class often show higher-order problem-solving and metacognitive learning strategies in their works (Christenson, Reschly, & Wylie, 2012). Accordingly, teachers often use rubrics as a type of “assessment” to indicate students’ levels of thinking and understanding
