Lack of Student Engagement in an Online Learning Environment (Thesis Sample)

Literature Review on Lack of Student Engagement in an Online Learning Environment
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Outline
1 Introduction
* Student engagement in online learning refers to the level of attention and passion that learners are required to have during online class activities.
* The review explores to study content concerning the lack of student engagement in online learning.
* Areas of study that will be explored in the literature include the correlation of student engagement with online learning, the student isolation in online learning, the curriculum offered in such sessions, the problems associated with the subject, and the technical issues.
2 Rationale
* The reason why the study is of focus is due to the fluctuation of student engagement levels in most university students and other learning institutions.
3 Evaluation
* The correlation between online learning and student engagement
The link between the online learning and student engagement is that the two complement each other for the student to excel in studies.
* Problematic process
Online learning may be ineffective due to a raft of issues that the learner is required to honor in classwork among other issues.
* Technology hitches
Lack of student engagement may be due to technology factions such as connectivity issues, device modification, and others.
* Difficulty in learning synchronously
Online learning may be affected if the sessions are fixed for students to attend classes hence leading to the problem being explored.
* Isolation of students
There is a lack of student engagement if students are isolated as they may be having issues such as stress and anxiety during learning periods.
* Curriculum
The mode of delivery may not conform to what the curriculum requires hence discourage instructors and students significantly.
4 Summary of the content
The lack of student engagement in online learning is influenced by student isolation issues, technology, nature of the method, problems realized, curriculum challenges, and synchronous learning problems
5 Conclusion
Literature Review on Lack of Student Engagement in an Online Learning Environment
Introduction
Online student learning refers to engaging students in a virtual class and tackling the academic curriculum through the use of technology-centric platforms. Online learning was previously perceived as ineffective but due to the nature of globalization and the current pandemic, many institutions have embraced it at a significant rate (Alebaikan, 2016). Student engagement may mean a raft of issues such as contributions in class, assignments, feedback on concepts, and other factors (Cole et al., 2019). The purpose of this paper is to present a literature review on the lack of student engagement in online learning.
The areas of literature regarding online student engagement that the chapter addresses include several issues. The review covers literature on the correlation between student engagement and online learning. Additionally, the review will establish the major problems associated with the efficiency of online student engagement. Secondly, the chapter covers how technology leads to the problem. Moreover, the chapter will include the difficulties in learning synchronously, the student engagement with the curriculum provided, and lastly, the student isolation and the impact on online learning. Although online student engagement may not be a problem to all the learning centers, it is a key problem that is being faced by many institutions more than that which had no history of proper curriculum engagement using technology (Hu & Li, 2017). Through the literature review, the reader will be able to spot challenges and opportunities that come during online student engagement among other issues.
Theory/ Rationale
The study's main research area is investigating the lack of student engagement in online learning. There is a reason as to why the topic is important to the learners, teachers and general school paraphernalia. First, there has been a fluctuation of engagement levels while conducting online classes among many universities due to the complexity and ambiguity that is evident in online studying. Andrew et al. (2021) notes that student engagement in online courses is tedious and comprehensive to understand when compared to face-to-face classroom learning. Citing to Andrew et al. (2021), the reason why there may be incidents of low student engagement is due to the perception that instructors have about the accuracy gauge for student engagement when teaching on the online platform. That may happen often to students who may be taking a technical course such as science, mathematics, and computing. The argument of Andrew et al (2021) is based on university-level education and can contribute for the reader to know why online learning has been a major challenge.
By exploring what the student perceives when it comes to online classes, it gives a basic notion of why there is low online engagement in learning. Bali and Liu (2018) explain how students' perceptions may create a bug in online education and as a result, rendering the subject to low engagement for the students by the tutors. Their study revealed that most students prefer face-to-face (FtF) learning when compared to online classes. Bali and Liu compared online group and FtF group feedback on how they perceive the subject. The research was done on students in Indonesia Open University, Taiwan branch (Kanojiya, 2020). There is a statistically significant difference in learning preference found among the two levels of students engaged in the study.
Research/ Evaluation
Correlation Between Online Learning and Student Engagement
To be able to understand the problem and the effect on the learners, there is a need to explore the relationship between the two variables; student engagement and online learning. According to Rajabalee et al. (2019), the critical component of substantive online education is ensuring students are engaged effectively. Thus, to determine the performance and success of online schooling, student engagement must be prioritized as a key factor that builds the relationship in learning. The study shows that continuous student engagement in online learning is a vital point in the performance of students in their studies. Therefore, it means for the outstanding performance and understanding of classwork, students must be engaged properly and actively in online learning (Roddy et al., 2017). The two variables complement each other when it comes to the outcome of the study in that, if online learning is conducted improperly, there is a high probability that students will not be engaged.
The student engagement levels in online courses are key indicators of how they will perform independently in class. Therefore, this literature review is important in highlighting some of the ways the online tools might create problems hence help in knowing what to address. Kahn et al. (2017) help realize the student engagement in online learning environments as one way to focus on what might lead to a lack of student engagement on the same. The ordinary mental capacity for students may be different from the FtF when it comes to learning online. Additionally, the delivery of classwork by online tools may restrict the teacher from coordinating some of the random formulas when it comes to teaching. Thus, basing on their argument, student engagement in online learning is affected heftily by the reflexivity and experience of the parties involved (Spencer & Temple, 2021). It might lead to a lack of student engagement because of the time that the parties may require to understand the procedures that are evident in class and other related cues.
Statistics of Online Learning in Modern Society
Despite the adoption of online learning nearly in all the countries, student engagement has not yet reached the required level. Tom (2020) notes that online learning platforms are offering access to school services such as BYJU’S based in Bangalore. By end of 2020, BYJU’S tool utilization had risen by 200% buy the number of students using the product. There has been a successful transition among many learning institutions in terms of management of online courses. For example, Zhejiang University got more than 5,000 courses online two weeks after embracing online learning (Stark, 2019). More than 95% of students in Switzerland and Norway have access to computer for their school work (Stark, 2019). Research show that average students usually retain 25-45% more material when studying online (Stark, 2019). The statistics show that online learning is not a new subject to the world as by 2019, many were aware of it as shown in figure 1 below. Therefore, it gives foundation of what the literature review will be dwelling in terms of lack of student engagement in online learning environment.
Figure 1: Online learning data to students in June 2019 (Stark, 2019).
Problematic Process in Online Student Learning
Teaching learners by use of online classes has come with its challenges. Although many issues are surrounding the subject, lack of engagement is a