How to measure and support engagement for an optimal learning experience

Last year, the global pandemic forced us to rethink education by applying social distancing in education and workplace training. Fortunately, current technologies make it possible to organise teaching and learning online, synchronously as well as asynchronously. Both literature (Gonzalez et al., 2020) and the current examination marks (February 2021) show that online learning did not negatively impact cognitive learning outcomes. Yet, several affective variables, including students’ well-being, optimal experience and engagement for learning, have been shown to significantly affect the learning experience of remote participants (Raes et al., 2020). In this symposium, researchers from KUL and UCLouvain (Belgium), and ULille (France) want to shed light on students’ engagement, which is a multidimensional construct within online teaching and learning and which can be studied based on several theories including autothetic experience (Csikszentmihalyi), Self-Determination (Deci & Ryan) and the Theory of Cognitive Development (Piaget). We aim to present up-to-date methods to both capture and support engagement. In the first presentation, Jean Heutte (ULille) will present what we mean by optimal learning experience by presenting his research on flow as an autotelic experience within a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). In the second presentation, Dennis Rivera (UCLouvain) will focus on cognitive and metacognitive prompts in MOOC discussion forums to facilitate socio-cognitive conflicts. In the third presentation, Annelies Raes (KULeuven & ULille) will present how to assess and support students’ engagement during synchronous hybrid learning including both remote and on-site students. Finally, Karine Verschueren and Fien Depaepe (both KU Leuven) will provide a discussion including the psychological and the instructional design perspective. They will present concluding thoughts and possible directions for future research in the field of educational psychology.