Presenters are listed in alphabetical order.
Student engagement in blended learning course environments in higher education: what are the most influential teachers’ strategies?
Blended, blended online and blended synchronous courses, by combining asynchronous and synchronous (face-to-face or online) activities, offer students an increased flexibility while maintaining synchronous interactions with teachers and peers. Although blended learning is considered as a fertile ground to optimize student engagement, the literature shows a lack of studies specifically focusing on student engagement in such courses. Furthermore, despite the importance of the teacher’s role, very few studies have explored teachers’ strategies used to foster student engagement in blended learning even though student engagement is malleable through pedagogy.
This communication will provide an overview of a mixed-method doctoral research about this subject. First, 20 semi-structured interviews were conducted with teachers in blended learning in varied disciplines and university levels in four universities. Strategies used by teachers were classified according to eight categories and three meta-categories. Second, a multidimensional scale measuring student engagement in blended learning was developed and validated with 465 students. Third, the influence of categories of teachers’ strategies on student engagement dimensions was investigated through questionnaires with 482 students. The main results of this research will be shared at the OTESSA conference.