Female Students More Engaged On-line

Pye, Holt and Salzman (2018) found that female university students were significantly more engaged by on-line education than males at Australia's Deakin University. This seems counterintuitive, with males normally thought to prefer using a computer. So it might be useful to offer on-line courses in STEM disciplines which have difficulty attracting females, such as computing.

"... gender differences were identified, with females indicating overall higher perceived levels of online engagement across all constructs, with significant differences in the dimensions of assessment, relevance and contact with staff. ...

While females were seen as more disadvantaged than males at the beginning of modern ICT developments in relation to access and technical skills, this no longer seems the case, and at least some evidence sees the advantage swinging towards females in current technology-enabled environments. "

From Pye, Holt and Salzman (2018).

Reference

Pye, G., Holt, D., & Salzman, S. (2018). Investigating different patterns of student engagement with blended learning environments in Australian business education: Implications for design and practice. Australasian Journal of Information Systems, 22. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.3127/ajis.v22i0.1578