Abstract While the effectiveness of digital multimodal composing (DMC) has garnered growing scholarly attention within the field of applied linguistics, little is known about how second language students engage with DMC to improve learning and writing. Conceptualizing student engagement with DMC as a tripartite construct, this qualitative case study examined two triad groups (one highly-engaged and the other minimally-engaged) of undergraduates’ behavioral, cognitive, and affective engagement with collaborative DMC in a Chinese EFL classroom. Data were collected from various sources, including students’ DMC drafts, stimulated recalls, semi-structured interviews, and classroom documents. The analysis revealed notable variations in student engagement levels between the two groups, as evidenced by their behavioral allocation of time and revision activities, application of cognitive strategies, and emotional responses to multimodal creation. Our findings underscore student engagement with DMC as an interconnected system influenced by a complex interplay of individual and contextual factors. The current study contributes to our understanding of the under-explored construct of student engagement with DMC, offering useful implications for DMC pedagogical practices and further research.
Cao et al. (2026) studied this question.