Does Course Specific Nudging Enhance Student Engagement, Experience and Success?: A Data-Driven Longitudinal Tale
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University of Southern Queensland
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University of Southern Queensland Australia
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University of Southern Queensland Australia
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University of Southern Queensland Australia
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University of Southern Queensland Australia
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University of Southern Queensland Australia
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University of Southern Queensland Australia
Abstract
Low levels of online student engagement impact negatively on student success and adversely affect attrition. Course learning analytics data (CLAD), combined with nudging initiatives, have emerged as strategies for engaging online students. This paper presents a mixed method case study involving a staged intervention strategy focussing on the employment of timely, strategic communication interventions conducted across 19 courses and six disciplines. The research methodology utilised CLAD, online surveys, student interviews and student evaluations of teaching. The findings substantiate benefits for both academics and students. Academics benefitted from the provision of a relatively simple, accessible and proactive intervention for increasing students’ capacities to be more in control and engaged in their learning. Students benefitted as the intervention accentuated critical resources to assist them to better address assessment requirements, align their expectations more realistically with those of the course, and more readily demonstrate their learning obligations and responsibilities.
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Author Biographies
Jill Lawrence is Head of School of Humanities and Communication at the University of Southern Queensland. Her research interests are shared between learning and teaching in higher education, cross-cultural communication and critical approaches to change and capacity building.
Alice Brown is a Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Education at the University of Southern Queensland. Her research interests are shared between online engagement in higher education, childhood health and wellbeing, and respectful and ethical methods for researching with families.
Petrea Redmond is an Associate Professor of educational technology. Her research, teaching and scholarship are intertwined and focus on digital pedagogies and online engagement to achieve improved student outcomes resulting in research infused practices.
Suzanne Maloney, an Associate Professor, teaches accounting and finance to undergraduate and postgraduate students. Her research interests are in superannuation and retirement transition.
Marita Basson is an Associate Professor (Urban Design and Planning). Her disciplinary research interests include sense of place, governance and regional development; and her scholarship of learning and teaching sense of place, online learning and the role of technology.
Linda Galligan is Head of School of Sciences at the University of Southern Queensland. Her research interests are in mathematics education (particularly with adults) and technology enhanced mathematics learning.
Joanna Turner is a Senior Lecturer in Physics at the University of Southern Queensland. Her research interests are improving methods in teaching Physics online, and in the measurement and modelling of ultraviolet radiation.
