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The paper reports findings from a study of 16 universities, highlighting the importance of online “teacher presence” alongside engaging, inclusive and interactive course design, content, and delivery. A regional Australian university case example shows unit-level changes that improve student engagement and supports broader institutional commitment.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/interactivity-connectedness-and-teacher-presence-engaging-and-retaining-students-online/592759/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/interactivity-connectedness-and-teacher-presence-engaging-and-retaining-students-online/592759.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Mimi","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-04","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":44},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"Why do online students in Australian higher education experience higher attrition rates?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The paper links higher attrition to isolation and to challenges involving technology, academic expectations, and pressures from other areas of students’ lives.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What key factor does the study identify for improving online learning outcomes?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The study emphasizes online “teacher presence” and its combination with engaging, inclusive and interactive design, content, and delivery.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How are the study findings used in a case example?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The paper describes changes implemented in an online unit at a regional Australian university, with positive effects on student engagement.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},592759,1792088149,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":44,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":26,"preview_page_count":4},2336477974920,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d","Australian Journal of Adult Learning Volume 59, Number 2, July 2019  \nInteractivity, connectedness and‘teacher-presence':  \nEngaging and retaining students online  \nCathy Stone  \nUniversity of Newcastle, Australia  \nMatthew Springer University of Tasmania  \nAn increasing number of students entering Australian higher education are choosing to study in an online mode. Attrition rates for online students are considerably higher than for students studying primarily on-campus, with evidence suggesting that the isolation of online study combined with the challenges of technology, academic expectations and pressure from other areas of students’ lives, are significant contributors to this. However, there is also evidence to indicate that a supportive and engaging online teaching and learning environment, can help to mitigate against these difficulties and lead to increased student retention. This paper outlines the findings from a recent study with 16 universities, which demonstrated the importance of online‘teacher presence’, combined with engaging, inclusive and interactive design, content and delivery. One example is provided of changes implemented in an online unit of study at a regional Australian university, in response to these findings, with positive effects on student engagement. Such changes at the individual unit level can indeed  \nInteractivity, connectedness and ‘teacher-presence’: Engaging and retaining students online 147  \nmake a positive difference on a small scale; however, institutional commitment to improving the quality of online education is needed to extend such successes to the broader online student population.  \nKeywords: student engagement, online learning, distance education  \nIntroduction  \nThe number of external students studying online in Australian higher education (HE) has been growing steadily each year, with nearly a quarter of commencing domestic students now choosing to enrol inan external, online mode (Australian Department of Education and Training [DET], 2017a). It is concerning, however, that retention and completion rates for external/online students are at least 20 per cent lower than in face-to-face study (Greenland & Moore, 2014; Stone, O'Shea, May, Delahunty, & Partington, 2016), with a recent Australian HE Standards Panel (HESP) Discussion Paper (DET, 2017b) reporting that external students are 2.5 times more likely than on-campus students to withdraw without a qualification.  \nBeginning with an overview of the pertinent literature, this paper describes and outlines the findings from a research study that investigated the perspective of higher education practitioners on ways to improve outcomes for online learners. The paper concludes with a case example of how these findings have influenced changes within an Information Communication and Technology (ICT) Project Management unit, at one of the regional Australian universities that participated in the research.  \nOverview of the literature  \nAlong with the continuing growth in online study, there has been an increasing amount of research into the online HE experience, particularly in relation to mature-age and part-time students, who are more strongly represented in online than face-to-face studies. Also strongly represented within the undergraduate online cohort, are students from the Australian Government-identified equity categories of: low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds; regional and remote  \n148 Cathy Stone and Matthew Springer  \nareas; students with disability; and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous) students (Stone, 2017) .  \nFor students from lower SES backgrounds, studying online can alleviate both financial and time burdens, allowing students to continue working and/or caring for families (Michael, 2012; Shah, Goode, West, & Clark, 2014; Stone et al., 2016) . For those from regional and remote areas in Australia (Cardak, Brett, Bowden, Vecci, Barry, Bahtsevanoglou,& McAllister, 2017), online education play","cbCaivVs5lwjRggN","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaivVs5lwjRggN","pdf",430605,24,"English","# Introduction\n# Overview of the literature","[{\"question\":\"Why do online students in Australian higher education experience higher attrition rates?\",\"answer\":\"The paper links higher attrition to isolation and to challenges involving technology, academic expectations, and pressures from other areas of students’ lives.\"},{\"question\":\"What key factor does the study identify for improving online learning outcomes?\",\"answer\":\"The study emphasizes online “teacher presence” and its combination with engaging, inclusive and interactive design, content, and delivery.\"},{\"question\":\"How are the study findings used in a case example?\",\"answer\":\"The paper describes changes implemented in an online unit at a regional Australian university, with positive effects on student engagement.\"}]","Interactivity, connectedness and ‘teacher-presence’: Engaging and retaining students online | PDF",1792075435]