Processes of monitoring

Monitoring face-to-face learning

In a face-to-face context, it is easier to view student attendance numbers, and engagement with classroom activities. This information is still important to record, and any engagement issues addressed early in order to provide ongoing support to students.

Monitoring online learning

Monitoring online engagement is not as visible. So where do we start then monitoring engagement in your online learning spaces? Consider the following:

  • General Discussion Forum - What general questions are your students posting? Are they asking for clarification or additional resources related to   assessment tasks? Are they asking where they can find particular resources? Are they asking what group they are in and how to access the group activity?
  • Forums - Which students are reading the forum posts of their peers? Which students are participating in the online discussions? Is this a key   component of their learning experiences to make this a priority?
  • Assessment tasks - How well did students go with the first assessment task? Did they produce what you expected? Were they able to complete the task with the instructions you provided? Were there enough resources, and provision of an exemplar to guide expectations?
  • Accessing resources - Are students accessing the online resources you are providing? All of them, or none? Some of them - which ones? If they are not accessing some resources, what is the reason - can't find them, don't think they are relevant or important, too many of them?
  • Engagement in learning activities - Are your students accessing the online or blended learning activities you are setting?  Are they engaging as you expected? Are the activities producing the opportunities to construct learning as you planned? If not, why not?

You can chose almost any component of online learning and teaching to monitor and/or evaluate for the purpose of determining engagement. The information on what your students engage with and when in the online learning space is built within our Learning Management System (LMS) Moodle. So access is easy.

Resources, strategies or assistance

Text/Articles

  • Buckley, F. (2000). Team teaching: What, why, and how? Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Ltd

Websites

Assistance

Contact your Institute's Learning Designer or L&T Technology Support liaison for more information in using the tools built within Moodle to support your monitoring needs.