Investigating Engagement and Achievement in an Online Teacher Education Course During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Investigating Engagement and Achievement in an Online Teacher Education Course During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Diler ÖNER, Mutlu ŞEN AKBULUT, Beste ULUS & Duygu UMUTLU

ABSTRACT
The primary purpose of this study is to investigate ways of improving preservice teachers’ engagement in a teacher education course designed for online delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic. While online teaching is a prominent research area, descriptions of online learning environments based on sound frameworks are typically missing in the literature. Addressing this gap, we investigated the role of online instruction, whose design was guided by the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) framework and supporting different types of interaction on students’ engagement and course achievement. We designed two versions of the same course differing only in terms of the level of learner-learner and learner-content interaction support provided. The analysis showed that online course design based on the NSSE framework was effective for improving students’ engagement in a project-based teacher education course even in the COVID-19 pandemic period. The findings highlighted the need to design online courses based on sound theory and provided insight into prioritizing different types of interactions in project-based online courses.

KEYWORDS: Online course design, Engagement, NSSE, Interaction modes, Teacher education, Preservice teachers

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