Engage me: Learners' expectancies and teachers' efforts in designing effective online classes

Abstract Background The COVID‐19 lockdown forced students and teachers to adjust to remote lecturers and digital learning material and design criteria for online classes became the centre of discussion. Objectives The purpose of this empirical study was to investigate the relationship between design principles of educational online practices in higher education and students' active engagement in the online learning process. Methods A total of 127 students participated in the study after their first semester of fully online classes resulting from the COVID‐19 lockdown. The online classes enabled real‐time communication and allowed for the creation of professional learning communities or the collaborative creation of content, for example. To evaluate the classes and to indicate perceived student learning, the study applied scales for measuring academic student engagement, as well as the four distinct factors for assessing online teaching effectiveness. Results and Conclusions Bivariate correlational analysis suggested that the two design elements Time on Task (TT) and Active Learning (AL) are related to emotional engagement at a meaningful level thus influencing student commitment and class activities. The results further indicated that TT and AL are significant design elements in relation to perceived usefulness and students' perceived learning. Implications The results may identify effective means to support and enhance student engagement in online settings, thus improving the quality of online teaching and learning.