EXAMINING THE EFFECTS OF VARIABLE STUDENT ENGAGEMENT AND STUDY STRATEGY USE ON OUTCOMES IN AN INTRODUCTORY PHYSICAL GEOLOGY COURSE

The study strategies a student chooses to support their learning directly influence their success and some strategies have been shown to be more effective than others. Two strategies in particular, practice testing and distributed practice, have been isolated as consistently effective for supporting student learning gains. Unfortunately, college students often rely on ineffective strategies (i.e., rereading, highlighting) during their study and tend to underutilize these proven higher quality strategies. Additionally, even if students do choose to utilize a high-quality strategy, they may enact it incorrectly. Compounding this effect is the variable amount of engagement a student exhibits towards learning in a college course. Whether measured by attendance (during in-person learning) or by a student’s engagement with online resources in the virtual classroom, the level at which students engage with learning tasks outlined within a course’s design inevitably has an impact on their eventual success in the course.

We investigated the effect of variable student engagement and effective study strategy use on student outcomes in an introductory physical geology course. Student behavior was analyzed over the course of a recent in-person semester that was augmented by a high level of online materials that were developed to support virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Looking across several signals; A) physical engagement (e.g., attendance); B) virtual engagement (e.g., online learning management and quizzing system log files) and; C) proxies for student study strategy use (e.g., temporal pattern of online behaviors), we analyzed student outcomes within groups defined by engagement level and strategy use and across each outcome variable (e.g., exam performance, course outcome and student confidence during online practice quizzing). We will discuss our methods, outcomes and provide suggestions for practice in supporting engagement and strategy use during course design.