Students’ Expectations and Experiences about Engagement Strategies in Online Courses: A Mixed Methods Study

Abstract

Engagement strategies play a crucial role in ensuring engaged and high-quality online learning experiences. In this mixed methods study, we examined online students’ expectations and explored their experiences regarding online strategies of peer, instructor, self-directed, and multimodal engagement, using a survey and qualitative interviews. Our quantitative results indicated that instructor engagement strategies were perceived as the most important strategies to be employed in online courses, while peer engagement strategies were viewed as the least important. Qualitative findings suggested that although all four dimensions were perceived to be important and necessary, actual experiences of each contextually varied. In support of prior research, our study demonstrates the importance of the instructor in online courses and offers theoretical implications for online student engagement and practical implications for instructors, instructional designers, and other stakeholders in online education.