VISUAL THINKING DIDACTIC UNIT

An Action Research Project on

Student Engagement in Virtual classes

Jennifer A. Fulton Educational Technology, American College of Education ET: 5153: Research Methods Dr. Tiffany Bateman May 16, 2021

Purpose

Increasing Student Engagement in Virtual Classes

-driven by the idea that teachers need strategies and help increase student engagement in online classrooms and blended learning environments.

problem statement

The level of classroom engagement has decreased for classes that have been forced to go partially online or completely online.

Middle school students are less engaged in virtual classrooms and blended learning environments.

research questions

What are the common reasons that middle school students are not turning on their cameras during online classroom meetings?

Why are students less engaged in classroom lessons on the computer compared to in person?

methodology

A questionnaire with open-ended research questions will be distributed to student

data collection

Data will be collected in three different sets. Students and families will provide answers to the questionnaire in one of three different ways; from a survey at home on their own time, from the classrooom, or a virtual meeting interview. * All Data collection will be using the same questions, only presented in different the different environments listed.

questionnaire for students

Rate your level of class engagement.

Rate your level of attendance

What prevented you from participating more?

What preventing you from attending live classes?

Indicate whether you were online only or blended learning.

Literature Review

Asim et al. (2020)

Tratnik et al. (2019)

Ciccone (2019)

3. Study confirmed findings support that middle school and higher education students are more motivated in face to face classes over online.

2. Differentiation is more prevalent in a face to face classroom compared to online, a possible contributor to disengagement.

1. Online skills and appropriate interaction needs to be taught to students because it doesn't come naturally.

data analysis

Rate your level of class engagement.* 8% rated the highest level of engagement *74% rated middle/average level of engagement * 18% rated the lowest level of engagement

data analysis

Rate your attendance to virtual meetings.* 45% rated the highest possible rating

data analysis

What prevented students from attending?- Unclear schedules from teachers - No consequence for missing class - Boring class, not motivated

What prevented you from participating more?- Fear of looking unintelligent - No consequence for disengagement - Internet problems - Family responsibilities

future action plan

CONSISTENCY

Teachers need to create team wide schedules

Teachers need to create team wide policies

Participation grade included, warning and consequences clearly communicated adhered to

Admin support for strictly adhered to attendance policy and participation expectations.

Clearly communicated attendace policy

goals & objectives

goal:

gOAL:

gOAL:

Create, obtain and/or design routines that require and record frequency of student participation and interaction during class periods.

Create a policy that requires students to have their cameras on and be seen during class.

Create a participation grade to be included in the assignments for the quarter.

Objective::

objective:

Motivate students to participate in virtual classes with interactive activities and participation requirements.

Increase accountability by not allowing students to have their camera turned off.

These data sets will be compared to what is gathered again at the end of the year. After implementing the action plan and finishing out the school year, teachers can discuss the level of participation compared to the previous year. A final survey should go out to students toward the end of the school year asking similar questions. Comparing answers from the start of the year survey to the end of the year might help provide insight to how effective the action plan was for students and teachers.

evaluation for future action plan

I believe that a way to evaluate this action plan would be to present the same survey to a new group of online students before beginning the next school year. It would be beneficial to include a great number of students that were in virtual classes the previous year. Data should be collected from teachers as well, surveying their experience with how well students participated in virtual classes the previous year.

discussion

With a strong group of teachers that can learn better virtual routines, provide a consistent and interactive class as well as adhere to strict expectations for attendance and participation, I believe that student engagement would increase in online classes significantly.

reflection

This has been my favorite course throughout the program with ACE. Although it was probably the most work I have put into a class, I feel like I have learned so much that I can take with me in my profissional career. My team of teachers were all very interested in my research project and the results. We have been sharing the data and discussing out action plan for online classes next year. I am so proud of the work I have done here and I hope to repeat the process in the future to address classroom problems. I must add that I really began this class without truly appreciating all the aspects of reseach, nor did I fully grasp the rigor involved.

references