Engaging students in a fully online accounting degree: an action research study

Student engagement is crucial for learning, especially in online learning. For a student to be a successful online learner, they need to engage socially and collaboratively through their behaviours, emotions and cognition. This paper discusses an accounting module of a fully online degree where engagement was purposely integrated using an engagement framework. An action research design was followed to determine the degree of engagement within the module and to improve on it. The findings indicated that incorporating five forms of engagement into the module was positively received by students and resulted in more students successfully completing the module. Student reflections showed that the module was cognitively engaging, that personal preference will guide social engagement and that working collaboratively will always be a challenge. Where, due to COVID-19, entire programmes need to convert to online learning, the findings of this study, could be implemented to ensure the continued engagement of students.