Factors affecting online synchronous course engagement: The students' perspective

Student engagement is a fundamental issue for educators and researchers. In some cases, even with advanced technological facilities or trained instructors, it can be difficult to encourage students to participate synchronously. The multidimensional nature of engagement may provide a rationale for this phenomenon. While definitions and classifications exist, additional factors may impact engagement depending on the context. Each study contributes to a better understanding of engagement by completing a puzzle piece. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the variables facilitating or hindering students' engagement in synchronous courses. Accordingly, the views of 8 students with high and 7 with low behavioral engagement were obtained through semi-structured interviews. Engagement was determined using log data such as number of messages and conversation time. The interviews were analyzed using the inductive content analysis method. The analysis showed that many factors influence student engagement. Among these factors, teacher characteristics, methods used, student attitudes toward distance learning, self-regulation skills, and interaction come to the fore. One of the most important findings of the research is that emotional engagement acts as a mediator for behavioural engagement. Suggestions for practitioners on what to consider increasing student engagement were made based on the findings.