Students' Engagement and Participation

The content analysis revealed the subthemes of the emergent theme of the students' engagement and participation were that the technology made the learning activities more engaging, cognitive engagement was advanced, communication, and interaction were enhanced and the students’ personal skills were developed.

Technology enhanced students’ engagement in learning activities

In general, the participants indicated that they were satisfied with the use of the online tools in their course, believing that using SLTs provided them with considerable opportunities to be more engaged in learning activities. PS#01said that he “was pleased with this project, worked on all tasks and took part in the given discussions”, while PS#02 was also “very happy to use these tools in our course, it is an amazing experience as it enabled us to access our course materials off-campus e.g. from home, so we can participate in online discussions and other learning activities related to our course.” Students also considered that SLTs made their learning activities more interactive, adding “much to student engagement and participation in tasks … they encourage students to be involved more in their course related work” (PS#06), and “in comparison to the traditional learning tasks, online work was more engaging” (PS#02).

Similarly, PS#10 said “students take active participation with their learning of a certain subject through this process.” PS#06 also pointed out that “we made more effort when there were activities in which we could take part and be engaged with.” In addition, PS#06 indicated that “we can access many useful sources and websites to obtain

related information and learn a certain subject from different perspectives.”

Furthermore, PS#04 explained the increased interaction of the learning activities in terms of the improved flexibility, creativity and dissemination of information. He stated:

I was pleasantly surprised with these tools. It is free, easy to use, and flexible.

But more than this, even the responses to class tasks and from the overall users of web tools were quite diverse and creative. This is particularly interesting for creative and visual students. It is an outstanding way of developing and spreading information.

It was revealed that SLTs were pleasing and encouraged creativity. For example, PS#02 talked about some web tool features that made it more interactive and engaging.

He stated that through the features of inclusion involving YouTube, Google tools, Slideshare, and inserting files and photos, “these tools become more interactive”. He believed the tools improved creativity, indicating that such tools made him “think about the order in which information would be displayed and made me creative in presenting them” (PS#02). Similarly, PS#06 liked that he was able to expand his knowledge and add more information in the discussions. He expressed this by saying that “it included interesting options and features that improved our knowledge and allowed us to add more information and review or modify them when required. I believe this led to further engagement with the learning activities”.

In summary, the participants perceived SLTs as useful tools in increasing their engagement. This could be seen through increased participation, improved flexibility and creativity, and more active engagement in the learning activities

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(Furlong & Christenson, 2008). Students might well have participated and become more engaged in the course due to the interactive elements of SLTs. These elements helped to make an enjoyable learning experience, and promoted more active

engagement than students’ believed was available in traditional learning.

Improved cognitive engagement

There were several activities that assisted in enhancing their cognitive engagement, including being able to “analyse and evaluate different ideas and information, and organise them” (PS#02). There was consensus among the students that each had made efforts to understand composite ideas and to acquire various skills.

For example, PS#04 stated that “cognitive skills and activities existed which I think do not exist in traditional education”. Similarly, PS#01 indicated, “These tools help develop cognitive skills, even the skill of innovation”. Consistent with this view, PS#03 said that “I feel that my cognitive skills, such as analysis and evaluation, and even innovation have been raised and improved”.

In summary, these results suggested that students could benefit from an online environment as it gives them the opportunities to learn more from the views and thoughts of others who are part of the discussion, which helped them improve their evaluation, analysis and innovation skills. The results are consistent with Zhu’s (2006) who showed that through effective interaction and discussion, students’ cognitive engagement could be enhanced.

Enhanced communication and interaction

It was noted from the interview data of most of the participants that the students identified their interaction with other classmates and teachers as an important factor in enhancing their engagement with their learning. Students’ engagement was found to be greater when they were interacting, not only with the learning materials and tools,

but also openly communicating with their peers and with their teachers. The participants indicated that SLTs improved their learning experience by providing various networking ways to collaborate and communicate within the learning activities. For example, PS#01 stated that “it was a very good opportunity for those who are usually silent in the traditional way to participate more with the use of such tools ... I know two of them who I found very active online”. Similarly, PS#03 said,

“it gave us an opportunity to contribute and communicate with others, I really liked it”, and PS#02 concurred stating, “I think the most important advantage of these tools is providing us with a convenient way of communication and collaboration whether inside the course discussion or outside when we met in the campus or off campus”.

The integration of technologies could help students become more engaged and make them collaborate with peers and comprehend their thinking. PS#03 stated, “my learning experience increased through reading the posts of peers.” PS#04 also stated,

“more interaction between students and teachers occurred ... It was beneficial.” PS#03 elaborated further by stating that:

Through these online learning tools, interactions with peers increase, their perceptions can be understood, important sites are searched on the Internet, and there are better opportunities to obtain and post helpful information ... it is great experience that students get more engaged in activities.

The importance of SLTs in developing stronger student links and networks was also revealed in the interviews. According to PS#09, “individuals know more about each other through these tools”, and PS#06 believed that “these tools provided us with an ideal mode to bring classmates together on one platform”. Furthermore, most

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students appreciated interacting with their instructor as it provided them with the opportunity to learn more from their teachers’ knowledge and experience and encouraged their engagement. PS#03 stated that “it was important for me to be in touch with the lecturer”, he believed that the lecturer provided him “with meaningful responses and sometimes referred me to useful websites and sources.” Similarly,

“student engagement increased greatly when teachers involved them and sought their opinions” (PS#01), and PS#04 “… felt that I could be more engaged when the instructor responded or commented on my posts, or asked about my view... this actually encouraged me to be more engaged in the activities”. Likewise, PS#02 noted that “our interaction and participation improved when the lecturer used to comment and reply to our discussion, I believe it is very important in such an online learning environment”.

Overall, the communication between students and with their teacher was important for the positive perceptions of SLTs based learning. PS#06 felt quite motivated when an instructor answered and responded to his posts, and found timely feedback to be useful because he was able to quickly identify his strengths and shortcomings and PS#10 thoroughly enjoyed the communication and discussions with his classmates and teachers, and felt connected to his class through this communication.

Practice and skills development

The participants indicated that using online learning tools such as SLTs helped them to practice and develop their personal, academic and/or computer skills. It was also observed that activities involving academic skills development, involving teamwork and communication, critical thinking, or writing skills contributed to their engagement in the course work. For the development of academic skills, PS#09

commented that “it helped develop my personal skills, such as self-learning, writing, and discussion”, and PS#02 and PS#03 indicated that their experience contributed to

“clear writing skills” and “effective evaluation and analysis”, and PS#03 believed “…

it contributed to thinking critically and analytically”. Also, some students said that the SLTs helped them to improve their communication and discussion skills, in which they were easily able to express their opinions. For instance, PS#06 said, “it helped develop my personal skills such as my expression skills'”.

Furthermore, some interviewees stated that their knowledge of computer use, ICT, and Internet search skills increased. For example, PS#06 stated, “before this project, my ICT skills were not very good but this novel experience of learning enabled me to perform the course tasks with the help of computers.” Also, PS#01 responded,

“… the use of such SLTs helps to increase our literacy and skills… I always go to Google and look for useful articles or sources for our online tasks”.

In summary, the analysis of interview data related to this theme indicated that using SLTs in their course enhanced student's interactions and communication and contributed to improving their participation and engagement in the learning activities.

It was also mentioned that various personal or professional skills were developed by using SLTs.