STLHE 2016 SAPES

In less than two decades learning management systems (LMS) have gone from being a rarity to having near ubiquitous presence on Canadian college campuses. This wide-spread adoption of LMS technology has fundamentally changed the learning environment for today’s campus-based college student, yet there is a lack of research that investigates how students engage with the learning environments created by the prevalent use of these systems. This sessions will share the results of a study whose purpose was to explore the relationship between campus-based students’ perceived level of engagement in an online learning environment (LMS) and their online behaviour as measured by log data for various LMS activities. The results of the analysis reveal no correlation between students’ online engagement as measured by the Student Engagement Questionnaire (SEQ) and frequency counts of LMS activities. Small correlations were found between students’ estimates of their LMS activity in discussion forums and their overall SEQ score. Differences in student estimates of their activity in discussion forums were found between student respondents grouped by age and gender. This session will focus on the implications of the research. The findings challenge stereotypes about how female, older, and English as a second language speakers engage with technology. If LMS discussions foster engagement for campus based students outside of their classroom experiences, the work for faculty and the staff who support teaching and learning is to focus on how LMS discussion tools can best be used. Student engagement has almost exclusively been defined by the NSSE, yet with further research, there is potential to use LMS data to further refine the SE construct. Faculty members and student affairs staff need to ensure that all students are provided with interventions and services that will enable them to fully engage in the LMS sites which support their courses.