Engagement continues to decrease post-midterm

In an earlier article I noted that students in my courses whom I had expected to by now be used to the rhythms of online education were unexpectedly low rates of engagement. In that article I looked at average engagement in courses this term. The following chart is intended to provide some context for the spring 2021 engagement rates as seen through the lens of assignment submissions.

Fall 2019 was the last term the course finished a full term and was residential in instruction. The chart shows the number of assignments submitted for each assignment. The assignments are listed chronologically on the x-axis. Note that the sample sizes, the number of students and therefore the number of assignments which could be submitted, is slightly different across the three terms. The differences are small and shifting to submission ratios would only slightly increase the disengagement seen spring 2021. 

Fall 2020 was a full term online and submissions for each assignment generally track the rates seen a year earlier in the fall 2019 residential class. This spring the students are facing the same assignments, but submission rates have been falling since the start of the term. And while both fall 2020 and spring 2021 show a marked drop in submissions just after midterm, submissions in fall 2020 bounced back whereas they did not this spring.

The students this term are not new students, not in a spring term MS 150 Statistics course. Most, if not all, of the students have had online courses last term. Note too that submissions were, relatively speaking, high in January with up to 41 of the 47 students submitting assignments. 100% submission of an assignment did not occur even in residential instruction. Thus there are at least 41 students who have shown the ability to submit any one given assignment, the ongoing drop in submissions is not likely to be due to an inability to complete and submit the assignments. 

Whether this is due to some sort online education fatigue or whether other factors are in play is not known to this author. 


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