Is Gender a Factor within Student Engagement Online?

Abstract

With the significant growth in online learning in recent years, factors to improve this environment are finally being considered. This leads us to contemplate if gender plays a substantial role in how students are engaged within these courses. This pilot study examined student engagement by gender in one sophomore-level ethics course held in the School of Engineering and Technology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Results of this small, pilot study indicated that there were few variances between the sexes within the online environment. Researchers noted the small female sample size (n=12) and concluded that further research and data collection were necessary.