Compelling mini case studies to enhance student engagement

Synopsis

Student engagement is an important concept that has attracted attention over the past few decades. The level and the extent of student engagement is further heightened more lately in an online educational setting as many higher educational institutes started to complement on-campus delivery modes with an online mode of delivery and also to effectively combat COVID related unprecedented challenges. More and more higher educational institutes grapple with student engagement within the context of online offerings as reflected in high attrition and low retention scores. Therefore, it is vital for higher educational institutes to effectively address issues surrounding student engagement due to the correlated effect on student attrition, retention, progression, success and overall study experience. Educators experiment with teaching resources as an effective intervention to enhance student engagement. However, increasingly students attention span is less and students look forward to quick wins and engage with those resources that facilitate the transferability of knowledge in an easy manner. The unit coordinator experimented with the mini case studies in a postgraduate unit which encouraged problem-solving, critical thinking and logical argumentation abilities of students. The mini case studies presented a hypothetical problem and allowed students to learn a new concept on weekly basis. Student engaged with the content, with the peers and with the instructor and further reflected in increased students study skills and abilities, better comprehensibility of the unit content, integration of theoretical concepts to practice, enhanced grade point average scores and their overall study experience.

Associate Professor Sujana Adapa