This qualitative study examined how teachers fostered student engagement in blended learning (BL), i.e., blended, blended online, and blended synchronous courses that combine synchronous and asynchronous activities. Twenty semi-structured interviews with teachers in various disciplines, at the undergraduate or graduate level in four universities, were conducted and analyzed using an inductive approach. Therefore, the study proposed a broad and comprehensive picture of teachers’ strategies to enhance student engagement in BL, that were classified in three meta-categories concerning (i) the course structure and pace; (ii) the selection of teaching and learning activities; and (iii) the teacher’s role and course relationships. Strategies were also linked with student engagement dimensions (behavioral, emotional, cognitive), whenever possible. The findings particularly emphasized the importance of a well-structured and -paced course, fully exploiting and integrating synchronous and asynchronous modes of BL. Clearly communicating how the course would unfold and corresponding expectations as well as establishing trusting relationships at the beginning of the semester also appeared as key to foster student engagement in BL. The use of various digital tools was also highlighted to promote student behavioral and emotional engagement at the undergraduate level, whereas cognitive and emotional engagement of graduate students was mainly targeted through experience-sharing and learning co-construction between students.

Les modalités de cours hybrides, qui combinent des activités synchrones (en classe ou virtuelles) et en ligne asynchrones, représentent un terrain potentiel d’augmentation du niveau d’engagement des étudiants dans leurs cours. L’étude de l’engagement des étudiants dans ces modalités nécessite toutefois l’élaboration d’une échelle de mesure, soit l’objectif de cet article. La nouvelle Échelle multidimensionnelle d’engagement des étudiants dans des modalités de cours hybrides (EMEECH) vient outiller chercheurs et formateurs pour mesurer l’engagement des étudiants dans ces modalités selon une perspective multidimensionnelle. Nous présentons son élaboration ainsi que des preuves de validité pour sa structure interne obtenues par analyses factorielles exploratoires et de cohérence interne sur la base de données diversifiées provenant de trois institutions universitaires. Un premier échantillon (n₁ = 234) a permis d’identifier trois dimensions de l’engagement des étudiants : émotionnelle-cognitive, sociale et comportementale. Un second échantillon (n₂ = 231) a appuyé la structure interne de la nouvelle échelle en confirmant sa structure factorielle et en présentant une très bonne cohérence interne.

This study aimed at building a reliable and valid scale for environmental factors related to student persistence in online courses, particularly relevant for adults or lifelong learners. Drawing on the social integration and external attribution scales and subscales of Kember et al. as a starting point, data collected in Canadian universities were randomly split into two samples. The first sample (n ₁ = 385) was used to explore the data set through principal component and reliability analyses. These confirmed a two-factor environmental scale composed of encouragements (factor 1) and time-events items (factor 2), as well as a two-factor persistence scale that included potential dropout (factor 3) and cost-benefit items (factor 4). All factors showed a very good internal consistency. The second sample (n ₂ = 381) was used to confirm the structural validity of environmental and persistence scales through confirmatory factor analyses and to compare this new structure to the subscales of Kember et al. While the latter resulted in an insufficient model fit, the new environmental and persistence scales yielded a very good model fit with strong goodness-of-fit indices and statistics. These results confirmed the structural validity of the new scales, which can be trusted for use in further empirical studies related to online student persistence. The new scales can also be used by practitioners to detect at-risk students early in a semester, allowing to offer them specific individual support to foster student persistence in online courses.

Blended course modalities combine synchronous activities (face-to-face or in virtual classrooms) with asynchronous online activities, and they represent a fertile ground for enhancing student engagement. However, studying student engagement in these environments requires the development of a measurement scale, which is the purpose of this paper. This new measurement scale for student engagement in blended course modalities (EMEECH) provides researchers and instructors with tools for assessing student engagement in blended course modalities (blended, blended online, or blended synchronous) from a multidimensional perspective. This article presents the scale development, along with validity evidence for its internal structure obtained through exploratory factor and internal consistency analyses, based on diversified data from three universities. A first sample (n ₁ =234) allowed for identifying three dimensions of student engagement: emotional-cognitive, social, and behavioral. A second sample (n ₂ =231) provided further evidence of the internal structure of the new scale by confirming its factorial structure and its superior internal consistency.