Table Of ContentA Phenomenological Investigation of Online Learners’
Lived Experiences of Engagement
A DISSERTATION
SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
BY
Angelica L. Pazurek-Tork
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Aaron H. Doering, Cassandra M. Scharber, Co-Advisers
October 2013
© Angelica L. Pazurek-Tork 2013
Acknowledgements
There are many individuals who have inspired me along this journey that I’d like
to thank for their contagious energy and unending support of my work and ambitions.
Thank you to Dr. Aaron Doering for being the first person to welcome me to the
University of Minnesota; for igniting and continuing to fuel my passion for LT; for
validating that I never have to apologize for my idealism and optimism in education; and
for always believing in me and opening many doors of opportunity. A most heart-felt
thank you to the luminous Dr. Cassie Scharber for being my mentor and my friend; for
modeling the profound impact a female scholar can have in the academy and on her
students when she leads with both her head and her heart; and for sharing your light in
moments when my candle grew dim. To both Aaron and Cassie, I especially appreciate
that you always intuitively knew when to step in and guide me... and when to step back
and let me lead. Thank you also to Dr. Charles Miller for your innovative vision, many
lively intellectual debates, and your kind words of encouragement when I needed them
most; all of this pushed me far beyond what I ever thought was possible. To Dr. Bhaskar
Upadhyay and Dr. James Bequette, thank you for helping demystify educational research
enough for me to believe I was capable, for inspiring me to consider and explore new
directions, and for always being so generous with sharing your time and knowledge.
Additional thanks goes to Dr. Mark Vagle for introducing me to the beautifully,
wonderfully complex world of phenomenology in which I find myself intimately
entangled; for guiding me as I begin to discover my scholarly gifts and the places and
spaces where I take the most inspiration and find the greatest purpose in educational
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research; and for helping me to realize that being highly sensitive to nuances,
relationships, and the threads of intentionality that connect all things doesn’t mean I am
strange after all, as I had always feared… it simply means that I am a phenomenologist.
A jubilant thank you and “hell, yeah!” to my fellow UMN LT PhD students who
have climbed this mountain beside me with perseverance... through laughter and tears...
while maintaining a collective sense of humor and joy. When I think of this experience
with you, I am reminded of the philosophy of Ubuntu: I am because we are. You will
always be more than colleagues; you are forever imprinted on my heart.
And finally, but most of all, a humble thank you to my children, Savannah, Caleb,
and Isaiah… for your sacrifices and your patience while I chased this dream, for being
my greatest sources of courage and inspiration, and for making me want to strive
tirelessly in all that I do to create a better world for you to inherit.
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Dedication
I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist… Teaching might
even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.
–John Steinbeck
This dissertation is dedicated to all of the great teachers and great artists I’ve encountered
in my life... to those who have helped color the canvas of my character and then passed
the palette and brush on to me; to those who have inspired my love of learning and
nurtured my insatiable curiosity; and especially to those who believed in me and held the
lantern, most patiently, while I struggled in times of darkness to find my way.
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Abstract
This study examined the phenomenon of learner engagement as it was
experienced by adult learners while learning online. Learner engagement has been
suggested to be one of the most significant predictors of learning and academic
achievement (National Research Council, 2004; Russell, Ainley, & Frydenberg, 2005;
Skinner & Belmont, 1993), and several instructional design models have been proposed
to meet the challenges associated with supporting engagement among learners in online
learning environments (Kearsley, 2000; Conrad & Donaldson, 2004). However, many of
these models are based on abstract conceptualizations of engagement, which vary greatly,
rather than how it is actually experienced by online learners. As online learning becomes
increasingly more prevalent in various adult learning and postsecondary educational
contexts (The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2010), educators are prompted to consider
how engagement is actually being experienced by adult learners within virtual
environments, what dynamics influence it, and how their efforts might help promote and
foster it. A phenomenological understanding of learners' perceptions as they experience
engagement while learning in online courses holds great potential to provide new insights
into online teaching and learning from an authentic, learner-centered perspective. To this
end, the purpose of this study is to help adult and higher education professionals,
including online instructors, facilitators, and instructional designers, understand more
deeply how adult learners may experience engagement in online learning environments
by addressing the following research questions: (1) What is it like to be an adult learner
in online learning environments? (2) What is it like to experience engagement in online
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learning environments? and (3) How do various elements of learning online and
dynamics of the learning environment influence adult learners’ feelings of engagement?
This qualitative study utilized interpretive phenomenological methodology and a
post-intentional phenomenological research design (Vagle, 2010a) to investigate four
adult learners’ lived experiences of engagement while enrolled in a completely online,
graduate-level, university course. For eight months following the conclusion of the
course, qualitative methods were used to collect data from the research participants’
personal narrative accounts shared through individual interviews, written lived
experience descriptions (van Manen, 1990, p. 63-66), and other digital media artifacts
created as part of the learning activities while the course was in progress. Iterative cycles
of phenomenological data analysis using a whole-parts-whole approach captured
tentative manifestations (Vagle, 2010a, p. 7) of the phenomenon of engagement as it was
experienced in online learning environments and revealed in shifting and changing
ways. Thematic analysis (van Manen, 1990, p. 78) was also used to identify three themes
of pedagogic significance: (1) The unbounded nature of learning online may significantly
impact the overall learning experience, especially how engagement is experienced; (2)
Engagement may be experienced online as a form of praxis; and (3) There is a temporal
nature to engagement in online learning environments, suggesting that it changes over
time and space, according to the influence of various dynamics. Research findings also
suggest particular dynamics that influenced the lived experience of engagement online,
including learner autonomy and shared decision-making. The insights gained from this
study were used to propose a flexible online engagement model that suggests research-
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based pedagogical design principles to help promote and foster engaging online learning
experiences.
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Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ i
DEDICATION .................................................................................................................. iii
ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... iv
LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................... viii
LIST OF FIGURES........................................................................................................... ix
CHAPTERS
1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 1
2 LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................. 16
3 METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................... 41
4 ANALYSIS OF DATA .................................................................................... 80
5 NARRATIVE REPRESENTATION OF THE RESEARCH FINDINGS ....... 97
6 CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS ...................................................... 144
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................. 174
APPENDICES ............................................................................................................... 179
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List of Tables
Table 3.1: Research Participant Profiles .......................................................................... 52
Table 3.2: Connections Between Research Questions and Data Sources ........................ 70
Table 4.1: Connections Between Tentative Manifestations and Themes of Pedagogic
Significance ...................................................................................................................... 95
Table 6.1: Connections Between Design Principles, Themes of Pedagogic Significance,
and Tentative Manifestations.......................................................................................... 162
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