Student Engagement Level in Online Learning: The New Normal

Abstract

This research explored the level of student engagement based on the four dimensions which illustrate how students spend their time and energy during online learning: (1) Skill engagement; (2) Emotional engagement; (3) Participation engagement; and (4) Performance engagement. Furthermore, the challenges that affect student engagement were also highlighted in the current research to improve the effectiveness of the online classroom instructions and enhance in-class engagement among the students. A modified version of the Student Course Engagement Questionnaire (SCEQ) was used for this research. The data was gathered and collected online using a survey consisting of 40 items. 125 Universiti Selangor (UNISEL) undergraduate students were the respondents in this research who have undergone online classroom during the Covid-19 pandemic. The data collection was analysed using the IBM SPSS Statistics software package. The findings show that the overall level of student engagement according to the data collected indicates a positive engagement (from moderate to high) based on the calculated mean for each item apart from the challenges faced by the respondents during online classrooms. To conclude, further research should be conducted to find effective methods to enhance student engagement during the online classroom.