A Review of Higher Education Students’ Online Engagement Under The COVID-19 Pandemic

School of Environment, Education and Development, University of Manchester, M13 9PL Manchester, UK

^* Corresponding author: yuxin.xue@student.manchester.ac.uk

Abstract

The spread of COVID-19 has presented enormous challenges to higher education students all over the world, prompting these students to switch from face-to-face to online courses. Previous researchers have focused on how university students in specific countries engage in online learning. However, the engagement of university students in online learning on a larger scale has not been thoroughly investigated. This study provides a comprehensive discussion of student engagement in online learning at large higher education institutions around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study focuses university students need to attend university online. Since “engagement” is considered a multidimensional term, this review evaluates studies related to the idea of global university students’ online “engagement” in terms of three unique but interconnected dimensions: behavioral, conscious, and emotional engagement. This review can serve as a reference point for higher education institutions, education policymakers, and teachers in various countries as they work to develop more effective solutions to increase online participation of university students.