Leveraging Multitasking Opportunities to Increase Motivation and Engagement in Online Classrooms: An Action Research Case Study

Newer social media have brought about attention deficits brought on by a flood of distractions, such as text messaging, blogging, and browsing on mobile devices and laptops brought into the classroom. It appears that online learning places the same demands on learners' ability to remain on-task and focused. While following up on assessing the benefits of live satellite broadcasts from remote areas of the world, the researchers made several interesting discoveries about the nature of the design of the content management system that delivered the classroom experience. The interface included a means by which students could synchronously chat during the live broadcasts. The ability to multitask appeared to increase participants' engagement in the class and their sense of social presence. The researchers present their results based on the results of a pre and post participant questionnaire to determine how best to sustain student engagement and interaction in a distance-learning environment.