Addressing Behavioral Disengagement in Online Learning

In recent years, there has been increasing awareness that behavioral disengagement plays an important role in online learning. Not only are some forms of behavioral disengagement associated with lower learning gains in the short-term (in the case of online learning see Gobel, 2008; Cocea et al., 2009), behavioral disengagement is also associated with lower long-term academic performance (Finn & Owings, 2006; Wang & Eccles, 2012; Pardos et al., 2013) and even whether learners advance in their academic career years later (Ensminger & Slusarcick, 1992; San Pedro et al., 2013).