Enhancing academic student engagement in vocational agricultural education: why course design matters

This paper considers the influence of course design on the capability of a vocational college to implement a student-centred learning approach to enhance academic student engagement. It is based on an action research project involving a course redesign within a vocational agricultural education setting that created a more student-centred approach and in turn enhanced academic student engagement compared to its traditional delivery. Phase 1 of research looked at academic student engagement in a traditional lecture format utilising a multi-methodological analysis. This analysis identified that one type of module presented a significant challenge with 0/16 classes rated as 'high engagement', primarily due to the subject content. Phase 2 redesigned a module of this type using a more student-centred learning approach to evaluate if this could enhance academic student engagement. Observations carried out on 24 classes of the redesigned module rated 21/24 as 'high engagement'. The redesign process enabled the use of a more student-centred learning approach albeit limited by requirements to comply with traditional quality assurance requirements of the current course design. This action research contributes a greater understanding of how the principles of course design need to be considered in seeking to enhance academic student engagement in vocational education.