Blended spaces, work based learning and constructive alignment

Impacts on student engagement

Abstract

This study examined students’ active engagement in the context of aligned curriculum and instruction. In conjunction with Biggs’ (2003) notion of constructive alignment, the ten principles of engagement suggested by Krause (2005) informed the redesign of an undergraduate course, which was delivered fully online and had a work-based learning component. The results of the present study strongly suggest that the course redesign has lead to significantly increased student engagement and achievement of higher order outcomes. Statistical analyses using Student t-tests revealed highly significant increases (p=0.002) in student engagement as measured by the average total ‘hits per student’ on learning resources, and a highly significant increase (p=0.001) in student engagement within the Discussion Forum on the online learning environment. Findings in the study highlighted a number of implications for educational practice, one of which is the need for a University- or systemic-wide review of the constraints that inhibit responsive course redesign.