All of us who have worked in higher education for any amount of time realize that engagement is a large part of student success, persistence, and retention. Common engagement opportunities tend to focus on activities outside of the classroom and have been shown to promote a student’s sense of belonging. But, what about inside the classroom? And to take it a bit further, inside the online classroom. Does online classroom engagement contribute to success and affinity? The answer is yes, greatly!
Engagement includes many areas both inside and outside of the classroom. The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) benchmarks five activities of student engagement, including the level of academic challenge, a supportive campus environment, enriching educational experiences, student–faculty interaction, and active and collaborative learning experiences (Dixson, 2015). Additionally, research conducted by Heilporn, Lakhal, and Belisle (2021) show that engagement has three interrelated dimensions: behavioral, emotional, and cognitive.
Considering all the areas that are under the umbrella of engagement and the fact that it can impact a learner’s academic success, co-curricular engagement, mental health and well being, and personal development (Lavy-Joy, et al., 2025), how can we, as higher education professionals, ensure that engagement meets the needs of learners just in time?
Through research, student satisfaction survey results, and faculty feedback three distinct areas of concentration will promote student engagement with a support for persistence, retention, success, and progress. The three areas include faculty connections outside of the classroom, online synchronous connections inside and outside of the classroom, and showing the value of learning in asynchronous environments.
Faculty Connections Outside the Classroom are Important
Student-Faculty Interactions
Online learners want many options for student–faculty interactions outside of the classroom. Students feel a sense of connection when faculty focus on a relational style of interaction. Three ways students will feel connected and overcome their feelings of isolation when using a relational style are:
- Offering flexibility in meeting synchronously outside of office hours provided.
- Facilitating study sessions for group learning with peers, time to talk about non course topics, and supplemental instruction.
- One on one mentoring that offers advice that is broader than course materials, such as discussing career options, building developmental skills, and providing best practices in successful online course completion.
Active and Collaborative Learning
I cannot count the number of times that students have shared that they and their peers contribute to a discussion board but do not see any meaningful contributions from a faculty member. There is a stronger motivation to learn when students form close relationships and have active and collaborative learning with faculty.
Providing space in an online course for students to ask meaningful questions, to interact with peers, and through creating diverse assignments that align with a student’s goals are a few ways to encourage active participation. Requiring students to answer a question and respond to two of their peers each week on a discussion board is not meaningful engagement. But, using that same discussion board to provide insights, open ended questions that cause respectful debate, and faculty contributing to the responses with expertise and clarity will create a collaborative environment that fosters responsive engagement.
One last thought, we all thrive on learning more about one another and building trusting relationships. When attending a meeting, what happens when the attendees are waiting for the meeting to start? They usually have ‘water-cooler’ talks. I recommend finding a way to model the ‘water-cooler’ talks in an asynchronous online course. Oh, and by the way, it isn’t just about offering a general discussion board that is open throughout the course with a statement that students can use it for interaction. For students to interact they need to see value and a clear gain of something. What is the gain you can provide?
Offering Synchronous Connections Contributes to Student Persistence
The landscape of online higher education is changing. The traditional-aged population is growing, adult learners still want flexibility, but they also want opportunities to engage synchronously, and there is a higher population of students who have diverse needs. Student persistence requires all of us to think innovatively to meet the diverse needs with less resources, both monetary and human. Educational experiences with enrichment opportunities in real time is one way to meet needs at the time they are presented.
Enriching Educational Experiences
Similar to co-curricular events, students want to see synchronous offerings that focus on academics. Not only in real time, but through video that offers actions to be taken later, recorded webinars that have real time interactions, and through technology including chat bots answering frequently asked questions and apps that provide timely information.
Including platforms in an online course that are interactive, offer skill building when learning course materials, and are user-friendly provides educational experiences that enhance learning. Additionally, platforms that provide synchronous interaction encourage idea sharing and discussion between peers and faculty. It is a great way to foster trusting relationships with faculty and students that contribute to retention and student success!
Students will make greater effort in academic activities when they have a sense of belonging, an understanding of the purpose for learning, and feel that faculty care enough to create a classroom environment that includes meaningful engagement. We all want to feel known and valued. Students learning at a distance are no different.
Asynchronous Engagement Needs to Have Value
Level of Academic Challenge
How many times have you heard students say that discussion boards are busy work and do not contribute to their learning? It is just one more checkmark on completing assignments in a course. Assignments should be created that provide valuable engagement peer-to peer and faculty-to-peer.
Supportive digital tools such as video lessons, gamification of assignments, discussion boards that are thought-provoking, and PowerPoint slides that offer commentary are a few examples of valuable engagement within the classroom. These will stimulate student participation and attention (Heilpron, et al., 2021).
We all want to see purpose when participating in daily and future activities. Teaching and designing course materials and technology that relate to student goals and purposes creates a higher level of academic challenge, and eventually, achievement. Students will be more engaged when faculty deliberately plan meaningful activities that meet learning needs.
Supportive Campus Environment
Part of creating a supportive campus environment is to tailor faculty communication. Examples of how students feel supported through communication are:
- Offer many modes of communication, i.e. email, videos, chat
- Timely and responsive communication, especially related to their learning • Using positive tones when communicating
- Proactive communication
- Innovative and unique ways of communicating, i.e. create a message through solving a puzzle
Conclusion
Engagement within the online classroom contributes to student success, persistence, progression, and retention. Faculty support enhances students’ learning experiences providing a sense of belonging, purpose, and a clear picture of how course topics will build skills needed for desired careers. Intentional asynchronous and synchronous communication from faculty gives students a sense that they are valued and important. In general, we all want that so why not our online students, too?
References
Dixson, M. (2015). Measuring student engagement in the online course: The online student engagement scale (OSE). Online Learning, 19(4). https://olj.onlinelearningconsortium.org/index.php/olj/article/view/561
Heilporn, G. Lakhal, S., & Belisle, M. (2021). An examination of teachers’ strategies to foster student engagement in blended learning in higher education. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 18(25). https://educationaltechnologyjournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41239- 021-00260-3
Lavy-Joy, N., Stevenson, E., Sandlin, G., & Scroggins, A. (2025). Exploring variations in online university students’ perception of belonging. The Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration. https://ojdla.com/articles/exploring-variations-in-online university-students-perception-of-belonging
Dr. Dawn Coder is the Acting Associate Vice Provost for Online Education, Student Engagement at The Pennsylvania State University, World Campus. She has over eighteen years’ experience in the field of higher education, student success, and online learning in both public and private institutions, and twenty-one years’ experience in a leadership role.
