New Report A Mixed Bag on Student Engagement with Online Learning

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced an abrupt shift to online learning, stakeholders expressed several concerns. Would students really be able to learn as well remotely as they had in-person? Would student engagement suffer? Now, more than three years after higher ed was thrown into upheaval, results are beginning to come in about the shift to online learning. And while student engagement was lower by some measures, by others, it increased.

Dr. Susan Bickerstaff, a senior research associate at the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia UniversityThe latest results come from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement, a survey given to nearly 83,000 students at nearly 200 institutions last spring by the Center for Community College Student Engagement (CCCSE) at the University of Texas College of Education. The results, which compared students who took classes exclusively online with those who took at least one class in-person, showed that in some expected but critical ways, disengagement increased with distance.

Overall, online-only students were less likely to collaborate with their peers, with half saying that they never did, compared to only 17% of non-online-only students. They were also less likely to work outside of class with classmates (65% never did, compared to 40% for those who took at least one course in person). Engagement with instructors was also lower, with 45% of online-only students reporting discussing grades or assignments with their teachers, compared to just over half of at least partially in-person students. 58% of online-only students said that they never discussed ideas from readings or classes with instructors outside of class, compared to only 43% of those who didn’t take every class online. Online-only students were also less likely to use support services like tutoring or skill labs and were less likely to have engaged in service-learning activities or field experiences.

These findings were not surprising to Dr. Susan Bickerstaff, a senior research associate at the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University.

“Trying to figure out how to have the feeling of connection between student and faculty member and between students, I think it’s just really hard,” she said. “And I don’t think that folks have totally figured that out yet.”

The consequences are clear, according to Dr. Justin Ortagus, an associate professor of higher education administration and policy and the director of the Institute of Higher Education at the University of Florida.

“Whenever student engagement is lower, student outcomes are poorer,” said Ortagus. “They would be more likely to score lower on exams. They’d be more likely to get a lower [final] grade. There’s a connection to being less likely to persist.”