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Online Learning and Cocurricular Programs: Improving Student Engagement Using D2L Within the Arnold Mitchem Fellows Program

The Arnold Mitchem Fellows Program (AMF) is a cocurricular, undergraduate research program where first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students learn about basic research skills in preparation for future undergraduate research opportunities and graduate school outside of their traditional forcredit classes. Our academic year–long program culminates in students crafting a literature review on a research topic that interests them. This year, we incorporated Desire2Learn (D2L), which is an online learning platform used in higher education classes, into our program with the goal of strengthening student engagement. Using this technology allowed us to engage our students in asynchronous learning, which Hiltz and Turoff (2002) define as online learning that students can engage on their own time. Currently, not much research or practitioner insight explores the usefulness of D2L within cocurricular programs like ours, so we sought to understand how adding asynchronous learning through D2L affected students’ engagement in AMF. Generally, we have been pleased with our approach to engage students in learning about research, and students expressed admiration for what the AMF program provides them during yearlong seminars and one-onone mentorship sessions. Everything we do is aimed at preparing them intellectually and emotionally for their next research opportunity. As one student reflected during exit interviews last year,