Ensuring Engagement in Online Courses

Lori Crosson, Dean, Continuing Education, E-Learning and Culinary and Jennifer Mosley, Program Manager, eLearning Post-Graduate Programs, Sault College of Applied Arts and Technology

Lori Crosson, Dean, Continuing Education, E-Learning and Culinary and Jennifer Mosley, Program Manager, eLearning Post-Graduate Programs, Sault College of Applied Arts and Technology

Addressing student engagement in the online environment does not need to be a daunting task! Sault College's Continuing Education and E-Learning team has determined best practices in recent years to ensure student engagement. We strive to design, develop and deliver online courses and micro-credentials that are engaging and learner-centered. We can achieve this through collaborating with others who are passionate about online learning and delivery. The collaboration includes working with industry partners, various team members (instructional designers, e-learning and multimedia developers, Quality Matters reviewers), learners, and funders. We use the Quality Matters Rubric, 7th Edition, to support the design and review of our micro-credentials, ensuring all components align with the course learning outcomes and module-level objectives.

Currently, we offer on-demand, online micro-credentials that are industry-focused to support individuals in learning new skills and knowledge, such as managing projects or developing strategic plans (check out our offerings at Sault College Professional Development Training). We also offer development and design services for companies to host their own training on their own platforms.

To further support student engagement, our design team is equipped and knowledgeable on the importance of designing and delivering culturally responsive online curricula that meet the learning needs of a diverse audience with different learning needs, backgrounds, ethnicities, and cultures. By incorporating learning activities, instructional materials, and assessments that adopt the universal design of learning approaches and inclusive design thinking principles, we aim to ensure our online learners are able to see themselves represented within these learning experiences. Sometimes, this may include specific case studies, scenarios, or real-world situations that our learners can relate to, making greater connection and meaning with the learning materials and increasing transferability, generalization and application of knowledge. Every online course or micro-credential that is designed, developed, and delivered by our team has been designed to ensure our learners can achieve the learning outcomes; this includes ensuring that each component of curriculum design has been selected with intentionality and purpose, including instructional materials and resources, learning activities and engagement, educational technologies and tools, and graded and ungraded formative and summative type assessments.

"By incorporating a variety of EdTech tools, we ensure the learning needs of our learners are met."

Our design team uses an array of eLearning authoring tools and educational technologies to support the creation of our eLearning micro-credentials and online courses for the variety of learners participating in our programming. For example, the majority of our online courses are designed by instructional designers and subject matter experts and then built in either Storyline or Rise 360. We also use other tools, including Vyond, Murf AI, Padlet, Mentimeter, Jamboard, Canva, H5P, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. By incorporating a variety of EdTech tools, we ensure the learning needs of our learners are met. For example, we recognize that the matching exercise within Rise 360 is not accessible for learners with disabilities or for learners who rely solely on the use of the keyboard; therefore, rather than omitting these matching or drag-and-drop activities from our eLearning modules, our design team creates accessible versions of these activities so that learners with disabilities can participate equally with each activity in the course.

Additionally, our online courses include narration and transcripts to ensure all learners, regardless of their learning needs and styles, can equally engage with the online learning experience. Lastly, because our design team recognizes the importance of personalization, universal design of learning, and inclusive design thinking, our online learners can always choose from an array of instructional materials and resources that suit their learning preferences best. For example, we recognize that not all our learners learn best by reading material or lesson notes and that some learners learn best through watching videos or listening to audio, such as specific podcasts. As such, our design team ensures that different multimedia is incorporated within our online courses, ensuring learners have the autonomy and freedom to select the instructional materials and learning activities they will learn best from and support them with progress and success. Learners are also encouraged to participate in knowledge check questions that are dispersed throughout our online courses as a way for our learners to gauge their own learning and progression, determining for themselves if they are ready to proceed to the next module within a course or if reviewing the previous lesson is necessary.

To further enhance student engagement, our team has worked with our post-secondary departments to offer micro-credentials to our full-time students on campus. Adding micro-credentials to their full-time studies further enhances the student experience and provides bites of learning that are specific and industry-specific. Continue to check out our work at Sault College Professional Development Training to stay connected to new, engaging e-learning opportunities!