Do interactive technologies enhance online students’ engagement?

Students who study university courses online have a higher level of attrition compared with their on-campus counterparts, so online student engagement has become a contemporary concern for teaching faculty. The issue of student engagement is particularly acute in fields such as Guidance and Counselling in Education, which have not traditionally been taught online. Online student engagement suggests that learning success can be enhanced if students are given opportunities to engage cognitively, behaviourally, and affectively. This study took a pragmatic research approach using design-based research to explore whether interactive technologies, which are learner-centred and promote active and participatory learning, can enhance online student engagement. Data were gathered at a mid-sized regional Australian university in a post-graduate Guidance and Counselling course and analysed in response to Redmond et al.’s (2018) online engagement framework for higher education. The results provide specific insights into how three interactive technologies—Padlet, Google Docs and video-embedded quizzes—engaged online students. They show that students valued learning with technology and that all three technologies promoted engagement across the various dimensions. As online counselling courses become more widely accepted, further knowledge is needed about how best to engage the range of students who are studying for people-centred professions such as counselling.