Galvanising Transition and Success for Underrepresented Students: Five Conditions for Enhancing Online Student Engagement

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5204/ssj.3453

Keywords:

Underrepresented students, student transition, online student engagement, student diversity, student inclusion, online learning

Abstract

The Australian Universities Accord’s (Department of Education, 2024) focus on expanding underrepresented groups’ access to higher education underscores an on-campus-online paradigm shift, or post-pandemic digital transformation, to address students’ flexibility and accessibility needs. The shift identifies that online student engagement, and students’ learning outcomes, need to be effective and fit for purpose if students are to succeed. Conducted as one phase of a longitudinal project (2017-present), this research investigated the approaches and strategies that could be incorporated to facilitate students’ online engagement. Findings suggest that these strategies could be encapsulated under five key conditions: fashioning a strong teacher presence; crafting an inclusive and safe online learning environment; creating well-structured and interesting content; forging explicit expectation management; and ensuring students have time to engage. This article argues that if educators are purposeful in applying these conditions, employing targeted, specific strategies in their curriculum design and teaching, students’ online engagement, and their learning outcomes, will be enhanced.

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Author Biographies

Jill Lawrence, University of Southern Queensland

Professor Jill Lawrence, UniSQ College, Academic Lead First Year Experience and Employability Strategic Initiatives, University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ). Jill’s current research projects have outcomes focused on leadership and building capacity in the higher education sector and with institutions, staff and students. She has achieved two national teaching awards as well as being a member of the Office of Learning and Teaching national grants and priority projects which have yielded multiple research and scholarship publications and have led to networks to develop more funding initiatives. 

Alice Brown, University of Southern Queensland

Associate Professor Alice Brown, School of Education, UniSQ. Principal Investigator (PI) of three USQ funded L&T projects: i) a Commissioned project investigating the impact of nudging student engagement, a research Fellowship for supporting international teacher L&T awareness, and Competitive Grant focussed on transnational pedagogy; and CI with Redmond and Lawrence on multiple USQ L&T Commissions projects and a HEPPP grant focussed on engagement fatigue

Petrea Redmond, University of Southern Queensland

Professor Petrea Redmond, Professor of Digital Pedagogies and the Associate Head of School, Research, in the School of Education at the UniSQ. Her research is situated in interrelated fields of educational technology. She has published and co- published in a number of international refereed books, journals and conference proceedings, received 6 outstanding conference paper awards at international conferences; along with faculty, university and national awards for research and teaching. She is an executive member of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE) and the associate Chair for the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE).

Jay Cohen, The University of Adelaide

Associate Professor Jay Cohen is the Academic Director – Online Transition at the University of Adelaide and leads all academic operations as part of the Online Transition Project (OTP).  This project sets out to bring together the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia’s online education teams, processes, policies and operations as part of Australia’s first university merger

Stephanie Foote, Gardner Institute and Stony Brook University

Dr. Stephanie M. Foote, Gardner Institute and Stony Brook University, USA. is the Vice President for Teaching, Learning, and Evidence-Based Practices. Prior to joining the Institute staff in August 2017, Stephanie was the founding director of the Master of Science in First-Year Studies, professor of education in the Department of First-Year and Transition Studies, and faculty fellow for High-Impact Practices at Kennesaw State University.

Cathy Stone, The University of Newcastle

Dr Cathy Stone, Conjoint Associate Professor, University of Newcastle, Australia. Cathy is an independent consultant in post-secondary student equity and success, a Conjoint Associate Professor (Social Work) with the University of Newcastle, and a STARS Fellow. She worked for many years as a student success practitioner, developing, managing and evaluating higher education support and success programs for both on-campus and online students. She is also an active researcher and was an inaugural Equity Fellow with the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE, now known as ACSES). Cathy continues to collaborate across the higher education sector on research projects, external reviews and consultancies related to improving outcomes for historically under-represented students, including online, mature-age and regional students.

2024 Student Success Conference

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Published

2024-07-03

How to Cite

Lawrence, J., Brown, A. ., Redmond, P., Cohen, J., Foote, S. ., & Stone, C. (2024). Galvanising Transition and Success for Underrepresented Students: Five Conditions for Enhancing Online Student Engagement. Student Success, 15(2), 45–57. https://doi.org/10.5204/ssj.3453

Issue

Vol. 15 No. 2 (2024): Special Issue | Student Success Conference

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2024 Jill Lawrence, Alice Brown, Petrea Redmond, Jay Cohen, Stephanie Foote, Cathy Stone

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Authors retain copyright and grant the Journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution International Licence (CC BY 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.