Adopting a framework to support the process of critical reflection and understanding of online engagement
Abstract
Extensive literature within the learning sciences addresses the phenomenon of online engagement and strategies that support online learning. However, for academics, there is limited guidance to support them in the processes of reflecting on efforts to facilitate online learner engagement and, ultimately, to use those reflections to redesign approaches to teaching and learning. This paper reports on findings from an international case study that involved a group of interdisciplinary academics engaged in a process of critical reflection, which aimed to increase their understanding of the ways in which online engagement is supported in higher education. Findings from the current study suggested that reference to an online engagement framework heightens the effectiveness of critical reflection by elucidating an awareness of learning about ways of supporting student learning and online engagement to improve student success. The paper offers implications related to reflection on and of practice.