Online Student Engagement and Success in Graduate Studies

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) examines university programs on four themes: academic challenge, learning with peers, experiences with faculty, and campus environment. We examine NSSE’s commonly accepted indicators of student engagement on these four themes using Athabasca University Faculty of Business (AUFB) online graduate programs. Each theme is referred to in this chapter in light of these student engagement indicators and how they are operationalized within AUFB’s graduate online environment which is designed to be a high-quality/high-touch system. We discuss online pedagogical elements and student engagement through the provision of academically challenging learning materials, small online discussion groups, unfettered access to professors, and an individualized student support system.