Proposal of an evaluation model for online student engagement

Abstract

This article’s goal is to develop a system which allows the evaluation of student’s engagement level in distance education. First, a bibliographic review was performed, which aimed at determining already known factors constituting student engagement. Afterwards, four focus groups were conducted to identify additional factors that generate engagement in distance education. The next step consisted on the validation of a scale having students as subjects. The validation was performed by conducting a confirmatory factor analysis. Based on the list of factors and their importance, an algorithm was developed to evaluate students’ engagement in the distance mode.