Towards facilitating student's learning and engagement in an online pedagogy: A search for a personalized online learning framework for a technology-enhanced learning

Abstract

Extending classroom contact hours is a primordial concern at the Higher College of Technology, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman in particular. One of the tangible ways to address this concern is to assess the extent of available academic and technology-related resources, ascertain the utilization and initiate a pedagogy that has yet to be done in the institution — a hybrid course. This paper examines the student's learning and engagement in an aggressive move in deploying a didactic and highly structured online course in Basic Mathematics. The course was delivered for two full semesters involving eight hundred ninety five foundation and diploma first year level students. The results showed significant increase in student's engagement before, during and after classroom contact hours. This increment however did not significantly translate to a growth in student learning as measured by their final course mark. Furthermore, this paper demonstrates that the ingenuity to facilitate learning and student engagement in an online platform that creates a promising solution in diminishing human capital resources and lessening fund allocation in public govern colleges. The implications of this study are important for all the stakeholders primarily for the college administration in delivering a technology-enabled learning environment and secondarily, for the government to bridge the gap between economy-triggered incapacities all for the noble aim of educating the citizens to the highest and globally accepted standards.