Home > Archive > 2015 > Volume 5 Number 6 (Jun. 2015) >
IJIET 2015 Vol.5(6): 425-431 ISSN: 2010-3689
DOI: 10.7763/IJIET.2015.V5.543

Towards a Model of Engaging Online Students: Lessons from MOOCs and Four Policy Documents

Khe Foon Hew

Abstract—The paper describes a model of engaging students in fully online or blended learning environments. To do this, I first discuss the notion of student engagement and how it relates to the Self-Determination Theory of motivation. Next, I reviewed a number of online learning policy guidelines from four professional councils around the world in order to elicit specific guidelines related to the design of online learning courses, and student engagement. Following that, I analyzed two most highly-rated MOOCs. I analyzed the structural features of the two MOOCs and the comments of both participants who completed the courses, and who partially completed or dropped out. Altogether, comments from 839 participants were examined. Finally, using these empirical data and the policy guidelines from the four professional organizations, I outline a rudimentary model of engaging students in online learning courses, based on six major instructional design elements.

Index Terms—Online learning, blended learning, massive open online learning, MOOCs, e-learning, instructional design, engagement, motivation, self-determination theory.

Khe Foon Hew is with the Division of Information & Technology Studies, Faulty of Education at the University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong (e-mail: kfhew@hku.hk).

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Cite: Khe Foon Hew, "Towards a Model of Engaging Online Students: Lessons from MOOCs and Four Policy Documents," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 5, no. 6, pp. 425-431, 2015.

General Information

  • ISSN: 2010-3689 (Online)
  • Abbreviated Title: Int. J. Inf. Educ. Technol.
  • Frequency: Monthly
  • DOI: 10.18178/IJIET
  • Editor-in-Chief: Prof. Dr. Steve Thatcher
  • Managing Editor: Ms. Nancy Y. Liu
  • Abstracting/ Indexing: Scopus (CiteScore 2022: 2.0), INSPEC (IET), UGC-CARE List (India), CNKI, EBSCO, Google Scholar
  • E-mail: ijiet@ejournal.net

 

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