Evaluating student engagement and deep learning in interactive online psychology learning activities

There is growing demand for online learning activities that offer flexibility for students to study anywhere, anytime, as online students fit study around work and family commitments. We designed a series of online activities and evaluated how, where and with what devices students used the activities, as well as their levels of engagement and deep learning with the activities. A mixed-methods design was used to explore students' interactions with the online activities. This method integrated learning analytics data with responses from 63 survey respondents, nine interviews and 16 focus group participants. We found that students used a combination of mobile devices to access the online learning activities across a variety of locations during opportunistic study sessions in order to fit study into their daily routines. The online activities were perceived positively, facilitating affective, cognitive, and behavioural engagement as well as stimulating deep learning. Activities that were authentic, promoted problem-solving, applied theory to real-life scenarios and increased students' feelings of being supported were perceived as most beneficial to learning. These findings have implications for the future design of online activities, where activities need to accommodate students' need for flexibility as students' study habits become more mobile. Implications for practice or policy: The higher education sector needs to recognise students' increasing need for flexible online learning activities that accommodate study around work and family commitments. Academics need to design online activities that are compatible with multiple devices and are offered in different formats to allow students to study in opportunistic sessions across a variety of settings. Lecturers need to contextualise online activities within subject content and create authentic tasks, with real-life applications which make students feel supported.

Automated summary

The study found that students prefer to use a variety of mobile devices in different locations for online learning activities to fit into their daily study habits. The online activities were positively perceived by students, facilitating affective, cognitive, and behavioral engagement as well as stimulating deep learning.