Abstract Despite extensive literature on student engagement, there is limited research on nontraditional graduate students' perceptions in online asynchronous contexts. In this study, forty students participated in activities the instructors purposefully designed to support engagement through interactions with their peers, the instructors, and the content. Quantitative and qualitative data from an interactive syllabus, a mid-semester survey, the Online Engagement Strategies Questionnaire (OESQ), and learner interviews were gathered at four critical points in the course. The results suggest that students felt most engaged when doing authentic, hands-on activities and learning new skills, resulting in products they could share in an online portfolio. Kolb’s four-stage learning cycle was used to frame and discuss findings related to interactions between learners and content. These findings may provide valuable insights for faculty and instructional designers seeking to maximize engagement and promote critical thinking for nontraditional graduate students in online courses.
McNeil et al. (Thu,) studied this question.
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