International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences

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Is there Connectivism in Online Engagement?

Open access
In the context of the digital area, online engagement is essential to the connectivism framework. Connectivism, a term coined by George Siemens, offers a framework for comprehending how learning takes place in networked environments while also recognising the special opportunities and difficulties given by the digital age. Learners take an active part in online discussions, interact with multimedia contents, work together with peers, and produce and disseminate their own knowledge. This quantitative research study was conducted to explore perceptions of learners on online engagement which contains four elements: connectedness, diversity, openness and autonomy. This study was conducted on 129 students from Centre of Foundation Studies, UiTM Kampus Dengkil who undergo the process of online learning. A valid and reliable questionnaire was used to gather the data. It consists of four sections, demographic information and questions regarding learner-to-learner interaction, learner-to-instructor interaction and learner-to-content interaction. The findings indicated that most of the students gave positive perceptions on the engagement strategies with the learner-to-instructor being the most valued among the three. In addition, there is a strong positive correlation observed between the four elements that were documented. The results of the study have implications for students’ online engagement, motivation, academic performance and adaptability to future learning environments.
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