Kathleen M Kelm

A set of educational practices have been identified that offer a ‘high impact’ on student engagement, but the extent to which these practices can be transferred into the online setting has received only modest attention in the literature. This study sought to account for patterns of student engagement in light of a set of high impact practices on online masters degrees in the domains of Public Health, Management and Computer Science. We employed an interpretive two-part research design framed initially around a body of social theory that draws out the role of reflexivity in framing intentional forms of human action. The study found that student engagement was underpinned by modes of reflexivity that varied at the level of individual learner, enabling students differentially to progress both individual concerns and those concerns common to a group of learners. However, it was apparent also that beliefs and dispositions manifested by the students were seen to mutually interact with the identified reflexivity. The paper draws out the practical implications as to how learning is best supported online in light of these findings, including ways for students to take on responsibility for learning in the presence of uncertainty, strategies to incorporate a more explicit focus on underpinning social relations, and means to support students in shaping their own reflexivity and dispositions as learners.