Demand for online education is increasing

Working a full-time job. Caring for family. Maintaining a social life. Today’s adult learner often comes to further higher education with a multitude of working and personal commitments and obligations. The life of a busy professional looking to upskill and expand their career prospects, or shift to new fields, undoubtedly contributes to the unprecedented growth in fully online higher education.

How can we improve online education?

The quest to develop and deliver high-quality, student centred and engaging online learning in Higher Education continues in the ever-changing technological landscape. Research into online engagement and online academic student support, pillars of a successful Higher Education online program, demonstrate an evolving understanding of the issues inherent in online education.

Broadly, two distinct methods exist to address challenges: discursive (i.e., communicating rules, encouraging participation) and structural (i.e., changing assessment and LMS mechanics) with a strong argument for moving more toward structural approaches in the age of Generative AI and a need to strengthen assessment security and assurance. Online engagement, as a pillar of successful online education, is often described predominantly as discursive and includes activities, actions and behaviours occurring through various modes of online communications. Such practices now pair learning‑analytics insights with personalised interventions, such as timely “nudges” that prompt individual students to re‑engage with a course, subject, or unit within a (semi‑) structured support framework.

Structural approaches to online engagement

VU Online’s structural approaches to online engagement and online academic student support have emerged as a promising and scalable approach, harnessing the power of backward design and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles in the design and delivery of online education. Our exemplar of structural approaches to the pillars of a successful Higher Education online program was recently examined for its potential to impact academic outcomes for students. 

There is also emerging literature 

Briefly, the program studied included the following structural elements:

• Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and backward design principles consistently implemented in LMS content across subjects/units (same structure, consistent use of structured activities and engagement elements)
• 1:1 human-centric proactive academic student support via phone, email and SMS 7-days-a-week supported by proprietary real-time learning analytics that detect early signs of student disengagement
• Consistent offering of recorded synchronous live engaging virtual classrooms across the study period

What our research says

Elements examined across 143 units and 5,748 post-graduate students included completion rates of UDL LMS content and asynchronous discussion boards, utilisation levels of human-centric academic support, participation levels in synchronous virtual classrooms and final unit grades.

Our research found higher rates of engagement with each of these elements significantly predicted (p<.001) attainment of High Distinctions over all other grade bands. Higher UDL designed LMS content completion rates and higher human-centric academic support engagement contributed the greatest to achieving HDs.

Our findings indicate the need for structural elements, such as dedicated proactive human-centric online academic student support provided to all students and consistent Universal Design for Learning (UDL) of LMS content, to support fully online students to achieve academic excellence. In an increasingly online higher education sector, movement from discursive to structural practices of online engagement and student support could greatly benefit students.

Our evidence strongly supports that online students reach peak academic success when support is built into the course’s architecture. At VU Online, we harness real‑time learning analytics to uncover deep, student‑driven insights and trigger personalised, human‑centred online academic student support for every student, while a Universal Design mandate keeps every LMS page accessible and engaging. Our structured and systematic architecture delivers a seamless learning journey with data‑powered structural safeguards that turns engagement into a certainty and provides our students a decisive edge as higher education accelerates toward more fully online delivery options for students.

Demand for online education is increasing

Working a full-time job. Caring for family. Maintaining a social life. Today’s adult learner often comes to further higher education with a multitude of working and personal commitments and obligations. The life of a busy professional looking to upskill and expand their career prospects, or shift to new fields, undoubtedly contributes to the unprecedented growth in fully online higher education.

How can we improve online education?

The quest to develop and deliver high-quality, student centred and engaging online learning in Higher Education continues in the ever-changing technological landscape. Research into online engagement and online academic student support, pillars of a successful Higher Education online program, demonstrate an evolving understanding of the issues inherent in online education.

Broadly, two distinct methods exist to address challenges: discursive (i.e., communicating rules, encouraging participation) and structural (i.e., changing assessment and LMS mechanics) with a strong argument for moving more toward structural approaches in the age of Generative AI and a need to strengthen assessment security and assurance. Online engagement, as a pillar of successful online education, is often described predominantly as discursive and includes activities, actions and behaviours occurring through various modes of online communications. Such practices now pair learning‑analytics insights with personalised interventions, such as timely “nudges” that prompt individual students to re‑engage with a course, subject, or unit within a (semi‑) structured support framework.

Structural approaches to online engagement

VU Online’s structural approaches to online engagement and online academic student support have emerged as a promising and scalable approach, harnessing the power of backward design and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles in the design and delivery of online education. Our exemplar of structural approaches to the pillars of a successful Higher Education online program was recently examined for its potential to impact academic outcomes for students.

A recent publication by Thomas Corbin highlights the importance of structural changes in a time of GenAI.

Briefly, the program studied included the following structural elements:

• Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and backward design principles consistently implemented in LMS content across subjects/units (same structure, consistent use of structured activities and engagement elements)
• 1:1 human-centric proactive academic student support via phone, email and SMS 7-days-a-week supported by proprietary real-time learning analytics that detect early signs of student disengagement
• Consistent offering of recorded synchronous live engaging virtual classrooms across the study period

What our research says

Elements examined across 143 units and 5,748 post-graduate students included completion rates of UDL LMS content and asynchronous discussion boards, utilisation levels of human-centric academic support, participation levels in synchronous virtual classrooms and final unit grades.

Our research found higher rates of engagement with each of these elements significantly predicted (p<.001) attainment of High Distinctions over all other grade bands. Higher UDL designed LMS content completion rates and higher human-centric academic support engagement contributed the greatest to achieving HDs.

Our findings indicate the need for structural elements, such as dedicated proactive human-centric online academic student support provided to all students and consistent Universal Design for Learning (UDL) of LMS content, to support fully online students to achieve academic excellence. In an increasingly online higher education sector, movement from discursive to structural practices of online engagement and student support could greatly benefit students.

Our evidence strongly supports that online students reach peak academic success when support is built into the course’s architecture. At VU Online, we harness real‑time learning analytics to uncover deep, student‑driven insights and trigger personalised, human‑centred online academic student support for every student, while a Universal Design mandate keeps every LMS page accessible and engaging. Our structured and systematic architecture delivers a seamless learning journey with data‑powered structural safeguards that turns engagement into a certainty and provides our students a decisive edge as higher education accelerates toward more fully online delivery options for students.

Blog contributors:

• Associate Professor Christopher Fisher, Associate Dean of Learning & Teaching, Victoria University
• Ana Tarakci, Head of Learning Design, Victoria University
• Associate Professor Leicha Keate, Associate Dean of Learning and Teaching, Victoria University
• Professor Chris Walsh, Dean and Chief Academic Officer, Victoria University

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Link to the references for the blog post