Ready to learn in an uncertain future: ways to support student engagement

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine student engagement in learning amid COVID-19 and compare it with the previous cohort under face-to-face learning and propose a series of learning activities to engage students for any uncertain situations in the future. Design/methodology/approach: Two online surveys were conducted at the end of the academic years of 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 to measure student engagement under face-to-face tradition learning and emergency remote learning respectively. Findings: Student behavioural engagement was found no statistical difference between the two learning situations, whereas students having face-to-face learning demonstrated greater emotional and cognitive engagement. Social interaction is essential to drive student engagement in emergency remote learning. Practical implications: The authors intended to highlight some teaching approaches and learning activities for social interaction to engage students. Originality/value: Engaging students in remote or online learning is an educational challenge for the new reality. This paper proposed the teaching approach and learning activities to engage students in their learning in the future.