New Benchmarks in Higher Education: Student Engagement in Online Learning

The increase in the adoption of Internet-related technologies for online learning has been accompanied by a parallel, but separate, demand for greater accountability in higher education. Measures of student engagement offer valuable indicators of educational quality, yet have been limited to use in on-campus settings. The authors used key engagement dimensions that the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) defined to measure student engagement in online courses from 3 universities. Online students were modestly engaged in selected NSSE dimensions and had a pattern of engagement that differed from on-campus students.