Skip to main content
Log in

Promoting Student Engagement in Online Learning Through Harmonious Classroom Environment

  • Regular Article
  • Published:
The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the role of harmonious classroom environment to promote student’s sense of belonging and engagement in online learning. Harmonious classroom environment is addressed with student–teacher relationship and student–student relationship, while student engagement comprises three interrelated components of cognitive, affective and behavioral engagement. In this paper, respondents are recruited from Tencent classroom. Three hundred and five valid data are obtained to analyze by structural equation model. The results reveal that harmonious relationships positively predict student’s sense of belonging and engagement in online learning. Furthermore, sense of belonging is a mediator between harmonious relationships and student engagement. Accordingly, it seems important for online learning platform to establish positive student–teacher relationship and student–student relationship for motivating students to engage in learning activities.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anderson, J. C., & Gerbing, D. W. (1988). Structural equation modeling in practice: A review and recommended two-step approach. Psychological Bulletin, 103, 411–423.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Appleton, J. J., Christenson, S. L., Kim, D., & Reschly, A. L. (2006). Measuring cognitive and psychological engagement: Validation of the student engagement instrument. Journal of School Psychology, 44(5), 427–445.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bagozzi, R. P., & Yi, Y. (1988). On the evaluation of structural equation models. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 16(1), 74–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator mediator variable distinction in social psychological-research—Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173–1182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bentler, P. M., & Bonett, D. G. (1980). Significance tests and goodness of fit in the analysis of covariance structures. Psychological Bulletin, 88(3), 588–606.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bernard, R. M., Abrami, P. C., Borokhovski, E., Wade, C. A., Tamim, R., Surkes, M. A., & Bethel, E. C. (2009). A meta-analysis of three types of interaction treatments in distance education. Review of Educational Research, 79(3), 1243–1289.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Christie, H., & Morris, N. (2019). Using assessed blogs to enhance student engagement. Teaching in Higher Education, 26(4), 1–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coleman, J. S. (1988). Social capital in the creation of human capital. American Journal of Sociology, 94, S95–S120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Daniels, L. M., Adams, C., & McCaffrey, A. (2016). Emotional and social engagement in a massive open online course: An examination of Dino 101. Emotions, technology, and learning (pp. 25–41). Academic Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Datu, J. A. D. (2018). Flourishing is associated with higher academic achievement and engagement in Filipino undergraduate and high school students. Journal of Happiness Studies, 19(1), 27–39.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, K., Sridharan, H., Koepke, L., Singh, S., & Boiko, R. (2018). Learning and engagement in a gamified course: Investigating the effects of student characteristics. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 34(5), 492–503.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dennie, D., Acharya, P., Greer, D., & Bryant, C. (2019). The impact of teacher–student relationships and classroom engagement on student growth percentiles of 7th and 8th grade students. Psychology in the Schools, 56(5), 765–780.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ding, L., Er, E., & Orey, M. (2018). An exploratory study of student engagement in gamified online discussions. Computers & Education, 120, 213–226.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Doucet, L., Shao, B., Wang, L., & Oldham, G. R. (2016). I know how you feel, but it does not always help: Integrating emotion recognition, agreeableness, and cognitive ability in a compensatory model of service performance. Journal of Service Management, 27(3), 320–338.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunn, T. J., & Kennedy, M. (2019). Technology enhanced learning in higher education; motivations, engagement and academic achievement. Computers & Education, 137(8), 104–113.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flynn, D. (2014). Baccalaureate attainment of college students at 4-year institutions as a function of student engagement behaviors: Social and academic student engagement behaviors matter. Research in Higher Education, 55(5), 467–493.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable and measuremenr error. Journal of Marketing Research, 34(2), 161–188.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fredricks, J. A., Blumenfeld, P. C., & Paris, A. H. (2004). School engagement: Potential of the concept, state of the evidence. Review of Educational Research, 74(1), 59–109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gigliotti, R. A. (2016). Institutional identification and sense of community: Analysis of a new online graduate public administration program. Journal of Public Affairs Education, 22(3), 399–414.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gillenoneel, C. (2019). Sense of belonging and student engagement: A daily study of first- and continuing-generation college students. Research in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-019-09570-y

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., Anderson, R. E., & Tatham, R. L. (2006). Multivariate data analysis (Vol. 6). Pearson Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heflin, H., Shewmaker, J., & Nguyen, J. (2017). Impact of mobile technology on student attitudes, engagement, and learning. Computers & Education, 107(4), 91–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kim, M. K., & Kim, S. M. (2020). Dynamic learner engagement in a wiki-enhanced writing course. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 32, 1–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klassen, R. M., Yerdelen, S., & Durksen, T. L. (2013). Measuring teacher engagement: development of the engaged teachers scale (ETS). Frontline Learning Research, 1(2), 33–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lashari, T. A., Alias, M., Kesot, M. J., & Akasah, Z. A. (2012). The effect of integrated affective-cognitive learning approach on classroom behavioral engagement of engineering students. Academy of Management Learning & Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Law, K. M. Y., Geng, S., & Li, T. (2019). Student enrollment, motivation and learning performance in a blended learning environment: The mediating effects of social, teaching, and cognitive presence. Computers & Education, 136(7), 1–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levenson, R. W., Carstensen, L. L., & Gottman, J. M. (1994). Influence of age and gender on affect, physiology, and their interrelations: A study of long-term marriages. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(1), 56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lin, F., Wang, T. Y., & Yang, K. (2018). Description and evaluation of a large-scale project to facilitate student engagement in learning mathematics. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 58, 178–186.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luo, C., Luo, X. R., & Bose, R. (2018). Information usefulness in online third party forums. Computers in Human Behavior, 85, 61–73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luo, N., Zhang, Y., & Zhang, M. (2019). Retaining learners by establishing harmonious relationships in e-learning environment. Interactive Learning Environments, 27(1), 118–131.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Macleod, J., Yang, H. H., & Shi, Y. (2019). Student-to-student connectedness in higher education: A systematic literature review. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 31(2), 426–448.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Masika, R., & Jones, J. (2016). Building student belonging and engagement: Insights into higher education students’ experiences of participating and learning together. Teaching in Higher Education, 21(2), 138–150.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ooi, K. B., Hew, J. J., & Lee, V. H. (2018). Could the mobile and social perspectives of mobile social learning platforms motivate learners to learn continuously? Computers & Education, 120(5), 127–145.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Panigrahi, R., Srivastava, P. R., & Sharma, D. (2018). Online learning: Adoption, continuance, and learning outcome—A review of literature. International Journal of Information Management, 43(12), 1–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Preacher, K., & Hayes, A. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40(3), 879–891.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quin, D., Hemphill, S. A., & Heerde, J. A. (2017). Associations between teaching quality and secondary students’ behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement in school. Social Psychology of Education, 20(4), 807–829.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reeve, J., & Tseng, C. (2011). Agency as a fourth aspect of students’ engagement during learning activities. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 36(4), 257–267.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reyes, M. R., Brackett, M. A., Rivers, S. E., White, M., & Salovey, P. (2012). Classroom emotional climate, student engagement, and academic achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104(3), 700–712.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rushton, S., Giallo, R., & Efron, D. (2019). ADHD and emotional engagement with school in the primary years: Investigating the role of student–teacher relationships. British Journal of Educational Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12316

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sinatra, G. M., Heddy, B. C., & Lombardi, D. (2015). The challenges of defining and measuring student engagement in science. Educational Psychologist, 50(1), 1–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tas, Y., Subasi, M., & Yerdelen, S. (2019). The role of motivation between perceived teacher support and student engagement in science class. Educational Studies, 45(5), 582–592.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wonglorsaichon, B., Wongwanich, S., & Wiratchai, N. (2014). The Influence of students school engagement on learning achievement: A structural equation modeling analysis. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 116, 1748–1755.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhoc, K. C., Webster, B. J., King, R. B., Li, J. C., & Chung, T. S. (2019). Higher education student engagement scale (HESES): Development and psychometric evidence. Research in Higher Education, 60(2), 219–244.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of Teaching Reform Project of Beijing Information Science and Technology University (Grant Nos. 2020JGYB24, 2020JGYB23), Social Science Program of Beijing Municipal Education Commission (Grant No. SM202011232002), Beijing Social Science Fund (Grant No. 19GLC068), and Project of Beijing Information Science and Technology University to Improve Connotation Development and Scientific Research Level (Grant No. 2020KYNH218) and the useful suggestions by the editors and reviewers.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jian Zhang.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Luo, N., Li, H., Zhao, L. et al. Promoting Student Engagement in Online Learning Through Harmonious Classroom Environment. Asia-Pacific Edu Res 31, 541–551 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-021-00606-5

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-021-00606-5

Keywords

Navigation