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Under åren 2019–2022 har åtta skolhuvudmän tillsammans med Ifous och forskare från Åbo Akademi, Stockholms universitet och Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan arbetat med att utveckla fjärr- och distansundervisningen i sina respektive verksamheter. Syftet med FoU-programmet har varit att vidareutveckla fjärr- och distansundervisningens didaktik och utveckla lärarrollen för att stödja elevernas kunskapsutveckling. Utvecklingsarbetet har haft som syfte att stärka skolhuvudmännens förmåga att erbjuda fjärr- och distansundervisning av god kvalitet och i förlängningen bidra till en mer likvärdig utbildning. Vidare har programmet syftat till att genom samverkan mellan skolans professioner och forskare öka kunskapen kring undervisning i digitala miljöer.Totalt har cirka 65 lärare, rektorer, skolchefer, verksamhetsutvecklare, utvecklingsledare och samordnare i fyra olika skolformer i Linköpings kommun, Pajala kommun, Region Gotland, Region Östergötland, Storumans kommun, Torsås kommun, Värmdö kommun och Ålands landskapsregering under programmets tre år arbetat med tre teman: social kommunikation, lärmiljöer och bedömning. DigiLi

Student engagement has been identified as a critical construct for understanding and predicting educational success. However, research has shown that it can be hard to align data-driven insights of engagement with observed and self-reported levels of engagement. Given the emergence and increasing application of learning analytics (LA) within K-12 education, further research is needed to understand how engagement is being conceptualized and measured within LA research. This scoping review identifies and synthesizes literature published between 2011-2022, focused on LA and student engagement in K-12 contexts, and indexed in five international databases. 27 articles and conference papers from 13 different countries were included for review. We found that most of the research was undertaken in middle school years within STEM subjects. The results show that there is a wide discrepancy in researchers' understanding and operationalization of engagement and little evidence to suggest that LA improves learning outcomes and support. However, the potential to do so remains strong. Guidance is provided for future LA engagement research to better align with these goals. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

With the digitalisation of education increasing, the relationship between student engagement in Technology-enhanced Learning (TEL) and digital skills has remained largely unexplored. There is a strong consensus that engagement is necessary for students to succeed in school. We hypothesised that students reporting high and low levels of general engagement display differences in terms of their engagement in TEL, and that students’ digital skills correlate with their engagement in and disengagement in TEL, which in turn is related to their learning outcomes. We used statistical tests to explore the relationship between the students’ (N = 410) general engagement and engagement in TEL, and investigated how digital skills were related to engagement and disengagement in TEL. We found significant correlations between students’ digital skills and engagement in TEL, showing that the possession of high levels of digital skill is related to engagement in TEL. Interestingly, digital skills were not related to disengagement. This suggests that students reporting both high and low levels of digital skills disengage to some extent when learning with technologies. We also identified variables reflecting both engagement and disengagement in TEL that predict student performance as measured via final grades, implying that in order to understand and support students who learn with technologies, a broader understanding of the factors influencing engagement and disengagement is key.

It is well-recognised that engagement is critical for learning and school success. Engagement (and disengagement) are, however, also influenced by context. Thus, as digital technologies add complexity to the educational context, they influence classroom leadership, lesson designs and related practices, and thereby engagement. Despite being critical, engagement and disengagement are not well explored concerning these influences, with a lack of research undertaken within socially disadvantaged schools. In this qualitative study, 14 classroom observations were conducted, during five months, in twelve classes in an upper secondary school in Sweden, along with dialogues with teachers (n=12) and students (n=32). The data were analysed using thematic analysis and descriptive statistics. Identified themes include digital context, teacher leadership, engagement and disengagement. A network of relations between the (dis-)engagement compound and themes is presented. The results identified processes in which engagement shifted into disengagement and vice versa; in particular, that the intention of active learning does not automatically translate to active learning for all students, although teachers employed a higher work pace than did their students. Teacher self-efficacy and awareness of how to manage digital technologies in and outside the classroom was found to play a vital role in facilitating engagement. Understanding the (dis-)engagement compound in blended learning environments is key to inform active and visible learning for future research and supportive organisational structures.

usc Parent involvement in and engagement with children’s learning play an important role in influencing student engagement, achievement, and school completion, not least during the COVID-19 pandemic that swept the world in early 2020. Given the paucity of research exploring parental attitudes to and experiences of blended and online learning, both before and during the pandemic, a case study of UK parents (n = 552) was conducted from June to September 2020, using an online survey, with both closed and open-ended questions, as well as semi-structured interviews (n = 14). Designed and analysed against a bioecological model of student engagement [1], 40% (n = 221) of participants were parents of students in primary school only, 29% (n = 158) were parents of students in secondary school, and 31% (n = 173) had children in both primary and secondary school, representing 1,038 school-aged children. The results revealed that students mostly used a laptop, tablet or smartphone to undertake their learning, with parents reporting a rise in the use of videos (both synchronous and asynchronous), Google Classroom, and online communities, reflecting the tools that parents found most useful for their children’s learning, as well as the most engaging. Whilst parents reported feeling slightly more aware of their children’s school work, they felt less connected to the school community, and that students did not experience increased engagement or better learning, when technologies mediated education. Findings and implications are discussed against literature published both before and during the pandemic, and an insight into future policy, research and practice implications will be provided. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

As digitalisation spreads in education, it is vital to understand its relation to student engagement. We used student diaries and observation data to approach student engagement and explore the use of learning technologies on a lesson-to-lesson basis. Results show that a less thought-through use of technologies might lead to unconsidered effects. Positive indicators of the facilitation of student engagement included making the learning process accessible and visible to teachers.

Learning Analytics (LA) approaches in Blended Learning (BL) research is becoming an established field. In the light of previous critiqued toward LA for not being grounded in theory, the General Data Protection and a renewed focus on individuals’ integrity, this review aims to explore the use of theories, the methodological and analytic approaches in educational settings, along with surveying ethical and legal considerations. The review also maps and explores the outcomes and discusses the pitfalls and potentials currently seen in the field. Journal articles and conference papers were identified through systematic search across relevant databases. 70 papers met the inclusion criteria: they applied LA within a BL setting, were peer-reviewed, full-papers, and if they were in English. The results reveal that the use of theoretical and methodological approaches was disperse, we identified approaches of BL not included in categories of BL in existing BL literature and suggest these may be referred to as hybrid blended learning, that ethical considerations and legal requirements have often been overlooked. We highlight critical issues that contribute to raise awareness and inform alignment for future research to ameliorate diffuse applications within the field of LA.

Students need to engage in order to learn. As digitalisation changes the conditions for learning, it is essential to consider how student engagement might be affected. This study explores the relationship between student engagement (and disengagement) in technology-enhanced learning (TEL) and academic outcomes. More specifically, we developed and distributed an instrument to second and third year upper secondary school students (n=410), and matched the student responses with their school grades. The instrument was further validated using principal component analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Using a bivariate correlation test, a one-way ANOVA test, and a post hoc test, we then analysed the associations between low-, average-, and high-performance students and their reported engagement and disengagement when learning with technologies. Results show that high-performance students find it easier to concentrate when working with learning technologies than do average and low performers. We also found significant correlations between low grades and reported time spent on social media and streaming media for other purposes than learning (e.g., YouTube) and significant correlations between a decrease in students' performance and the occurrence of unauthorised multi-tasking via learning technologies while in class: the lower the grades, the more frequently students reported using digital technologies to escape when lessons were boring. Conclusively: high-performance students seem to have developed strategies to use digital technologies in supportive and productive ways. Thus, in order for schools to use digital technologies to ensure that disadvantaged students do not remain disadvantaged when learning with technologies and to not replicate problems in analogue classroom interactions, insights how different performance groups engage and disengage in TEL is critical for learning.