The “Study Phenomena” category is most closely related to my research interests. I am interested in student engagement in virtual learning environments, and this category directly addressed the concept of using online or virtual environments in educational contexts. With the swift rise of online education research regarding effective pedagogical strategies has struggled to keep pace. It seems that many teachers enter the virtual world and employ instructional methods originally designed and researched for the traditional classrooms. Additionally, virtual learning offers many opportunities for both teachers and students to have experiences not available in a traditional setting. Therefore, it is important that research determines how to best use these new virtual spaces to facilitate effective learning in students.
As a student engagement researcher the area of educational games is intriguing to me because of the unique opportunities presented by games to foster student engagement. Additionally, it is possible to integrate games into virtual learning environments in a seamless fashion to create engaging and meaningful learning experiences; however, research must be done to ensure that students utilize games in the proper manner. Currently research has been undertaken which demonstrates there are multiple ways in which students may disengage from science games and simulations (Gobert, Baker & Wixon; 2015). These types of disengagement are unique in the student behaviors which characterize them, and I am interested in understanding these different types of disengagement. After defining and understanding these types of disengaged behaviors I am interested in designing interventions to reengage students.
Gobert, J. D., Baker, R. S., & Wixon, M. B. (2015). Operationalizing and Detecting Disengagement Within Online Science Microworlds. Educational Psychologist, 50(1), 43–57. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2014.999919
Hi Matthew, Your focus on disengagement behaviors and re-engagement strategies is interesting!
Your post makes me think about the perspectives teachers bring to their online classrooms. Are they attempting to replicate traditional settings? Or are they recognizing and embracing the new affordances of technology? I think often times online/hybrid classes are less-liked when they are compared to F2F classroom experiences. This is not a fair comparison, though, and limits the judgement of the course to the boundaries of F2F learning.
How are you approaching your understanding of students’ disengagements? Are you looking to compare traditional classroom disengagement and online classroom disengagement behaviors? Or are you considering online disengagements to be unique to that context? I’m wondering because there may (or may not) be implications that transfer to F2F teaching for how to redirect disengaged students.
Hi Matthew, I too find your line of research interesting and also very important! With the landscape of education changing and more courses being offered online, I think there’s a lot of scope for research on authentic engagement metrics and re-engagement tactics. I wonder what your views are on data collection that are seamless and non-intrusive. Do you think this will change results significantly than the methods which are more intrusive such as interviews and surveys? Or do you think the lack of member-checks is a problem in educational data mining and big data in education?
Hi Matthew – It is interesting to think about how engagement might differ in physical and virtual environments. I have noticed that traditional research in physical environments focuses on “engagement”, but research in online environments focuses on “disengagement”. For example, the concern in traditional classrooms seems to be getting students to engage, whereas the concern of online environments seems to be preventing disengagement. I wonder if one orientation or the other is more helpful or if it doesn’t matter. What do you think? Do you think it matters whether researchers are focused on engaging students in online environments versus preventing disengagement or is it all the same?
Hi, Matthew. You propose to study some interesting questions about student engagement in games. I look forward to hearing more as this work develops!
Regarding the first half of your response to this prompt, it’s probably a good idea to reference Mishra, Koehler and Greenhow (2015) and a page number, if possible. Also, the prompt talks about shifts. Your response focuses on what’s new. A very short reference to how this is different from prior methods of studying learning phenomena would be nice. When it’s time for you to take your comps, the advice is to very closely follow the prompts. So it’s good to get into that habit early. This kind of close attention to exactly what is asked also can help with grant applications and other kinds of academic writing.
I appreciate the disengagement study you cited. Thanks again for sharing your worthwhile research agenda.
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