College students moving online: on-campus student engagement in online courses

Abstract

On-campus college students are enrolling in online courses at a greater rate than ever before for a variety of reasons, from needing a more flexible schedule for work to keeping their degree progress on track when on-campus sections fill before they can enroll to utilizing a modern modality for coursework. In order for online courses to help students successfully meet learning outcomes, the courses need to be well-designed for all students, including on-campus students who may be more comfortable in on-campus classrooms and less skilled in how to learn and engage academically in online courses. The purpose of this case study was to explore the experiences of multiple participants who all participated in an online communications course, either as students earning on-campus degrees at the same institution, as teaching assistants, or as the faculty member at a mid-sized land grant institution in the midwestern United States. The participants were selected with both criterion- and purposeful-based sampling. The participants’ experiences were viewed using the theoretical framework of symbolic interactionism. Individuals’ worlds are made of objects that may be physical, social, or abstract. The objects in this study are the elements within an online communications course; the participants shared about the elements that they perceived as most engaging. The data collected from this study is useful in building more engagement into courses that have high on-campus student enrollments, which the literature indicates will continue to grow. Participants specifically shared the importance of course organization, strategic course relationships, and relevancy of content in creating the necessary engagement that helps students learn to not just endure but to embrace the subjects they are studying online.