Building bridges to engineering interest : instructor inputs and situational interest in online engineering classes

Development of subject matter interest is an important motivator for long term student learning. Fortunately, what teachers do in the learning environment can have an impact on interest. This study was an investigation of how instructor inputs in engineering courses that were taught online were associated with students’ perceptions of instructor relatedness and situational interest. The initial hypothesis was that a student’s sense of social relatedness with the instructor would mediate the relationship between instructional inputs and student perceptions of situational interest in the class. The study employed a multiple methods approach to gather quantitative and qualitative data to gain insights into both instructor and student perspectives of the online engineering educational experience. The frameworks of teacher presence, defined by Garrison’s (2007) Community of Inquiry (COI) model as the design and facilitation of distance learning environments, and Mehrabian's (1971) concept of immediacy, which includes behaviors intended to signal openness to communicative interaction, were used to develop a survey administered to 141 undergraduate engineering students, capturing their perceptions of social relatedness and situational interest. Results indicated that teacher presence online, but not immediacy behaviors, was predictive of student-perceived instructor relatedness and situational interest. A higher reported perception of teacher presence was associated with a greater feeling of instructor-student relatedness and with situational interest. However, the two outcome variables were independent such that instructor relatedness did not mediate the relationship between instructor inputs and interest. Follow-up qualitative interviews indicated that the teacher presence construct provided a sufficient framework to encompass student and instructor perceptions of the role of the instructor, as well as strategies used by instructors for developing instructor-student connection and the encouragement of situational interest during class sessions. A synthesis of the qualitative and quantitative data suggests that instructors can use specific strategies from the teacher presence framework, including a focus on instructional design, facilitation of discourse, and well-organized direct instruction to help students develop feelings of both connection and interest. Although the initial hypothesis of a mediated path to interest via the development of social relatedness was not supported, the final results suggest that both instructor-student relatedness and situational interest develop concurrently and that the affective and cognitive components of online engineering education should be considered simultaneously.