Introduction

Online learning provides various advantages for learners, instructors, and institutions. Through the use of appropriate technologies, online learning facilitates communication and relations among instructors and learners. Online learning provides cost efficiency since it decreases the costs required for the travel or construction of classrooms. The learner differences are considered in online learning; hence, adapted content and activities can be provided to learners. Furthermore, learners have a chance to learn at their own pace through online learning. Therefore, this results in an increase in satisfaction and a decrease in the stress level of learners (Arkorful & Abaidoo, 2015).

In recent days, one significant benefit of online learning was observed in the majority of countries. Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, schools were temporarily required to be closed in most countries. Hence, online learning has been applied in most of the countries during pandemic (Nambiar, 2020). Therefore, all the face-to-face courses at all levels, from primary schools to universities, were provided through online means. This demonstrates that online learning became a remedy for continuing education during the epidemic.

As one of the developing countries, Kyrgyzstan also initiated the use of online learning at the university level. The university courses previously provided in face-to-face settings were provided in virtual classes in Kyrgyzstan during the 2019–2020 spring term. Therefore, instructors taught the university courses only on online platforms, while learners participated in these platforms to learn the course topics. Yet, the transition from traditional courses to online courses was performed so quickly for the continuation of university education in the country. While developed countries had more experience in online learning and performed this transition successfully, developing countries faced some problems in this process. For instance, instructors’ and learners’ lack of online learning experience and countries’ limited technology infrastructure resulted in problems with the proper implementation of online learning.

It was also observed that there are crucial problems regarding the implementation of online learning in Kyrgyzstan. One of the problems is related to learners’ lack of engagement in online courses. On the other hand, engagement is vital for the learning and satisfaction of learners in online learning (Martin & Bolliger, 2018). Therefore, it is essential for instructors and researchers to examine learners’ engagement in online courses (Dixson, 2010).

Although there are previous studies that investigated learner engagement in online learning in other countries, there is not such a prior study that was conducted in the Kyrgyz Republic. While online learning is gaining significance, it is becoming necessary to develop understanding related to learners’ engagement in online learning environments (Kahn et al., 2017). In this respect, this study mainly investigates Kyrgyz learners’ engagement in online courses provided at the university level. Furthermore, the study analyzed Kyrgyz learners’ problems in the context of online learning and shared the corresponding results in this paper.

Literature Review

Learners’ engagement can be investigated at two different levels, which are college-level engagement and course-level engagement. College engagement is related to learners’ involvement and experience in the campus environment (Butler, 2011). Course-level engagement can be defined as “the student’s psychological investment in and effort directed toward learning, understanding, or mastering the knowledge, skills, or crafts that academic work is intended to promote” (Newmann et al., 1992, p. 12).

Learner engagement is especially important in online course environments in which learners may feel isolated or disconnected (Dixson, 2010). In order to achieve the expected level of learner engagement, it is important to benefit from various approaches related to the design and development of online courses. In this respect, Meyer (2014) proposed the use of learning theories that encourage the participation of learners. For instance, he advocated the utilization of active learning, collaborative learning, authentic learning, and experiential learning strategies.

In the context of learner engagement, Jones (2008) proposed three important dimensions, which are named as cognitive engagement, behavioral engagement, and emotional engagement. Cognitive engagement considers learners’ beliefs and values (Jones, 2008) and is defined as “a psychological state in which students put in a lot of effort to truly understand a topic and in which students persist studying over a long period of time” (Rotgans & Schmidt, 2011, p. 466). In other words, cognitive engagement occurs when learners employ a great deal of mental effort to understand the learning content (Richardson & Newby, 2006). Cognitive engagement is considered an essential requirement for meaningful learning as well as for achievement since cognitively engaged learners are able to construct new knowledge and gain higher-level understanding related to course content (Shukor et al., 2014).

Behavioral engagement focuses on the habits and skills of learners (Jones, 2008), hence refers to “observable behaviors during the course, such as attention, asking questions, contributing to class discussion” (Li et al., 2014, p. 49). Behavioral engagement is based on the concept of participation and considers learners’ participation in academic, social, and extracurricular activities (Fredricks et al., 2004). Learners’ behavioral engagement in online learning activities was found to be a significant predictor of achievement in courses (Tsay et al., 2018). In addition, learners’ continued participation can result, and their dropouts can be prevented by learners’ appropriate behavioral engagement (Fredricks et al., 2004).

Emotional engagement considers learners’ motivation and feelings (Jones, 2008). Emotional engagement was defined as learners’ “enthusiasm, interest, enjoyment, vitality, and zest with regard to the class” (Cho & Cho, 2014, p. 25). Emotional engagement is established when learners react positively to their learning and the class setting involving the instructors, other learners, and the institution (Louwrens & Harnett, 2015).

Learner engagement in online learning environments can be investigated by considering system logs such as learners’ allocation of time for online learning as well as the amount of access to online course materials and activities. In addition to the collection of learner log data, researchers and instructors can obtain self-reported data from learners through the use of surveys, reflections, discussions, and appropriate formative tools (Gray & DiLoreto, 2016). For instance, the Online Student Engagement Scale (OSE) was developed to examine learners’ tasks (actively and cognitively), feelings about their learning, and their interactions with the content, the instructor, and other learners. OSE mainly considers the factors as learners’ skills, participation, performance, and emotion related to the engagement process (Dixson, 2015).

In order to examine learner engagement in online learning environments, Sun and Rueda (2012) proposed the Student Engagement Scale based on the prior studies (i.e. Fredricks et al., 2004; Fredricks et al., 2005). This scale attempted to analyze learners’ cognitive, behavioral, and emotional engagement with corresponding items. In this study, the Student Engagement Scale was found appropriate for the analysis of learners’ engagement since it is appropriate for online environments, and it consists of the whole domains related to engagement. In spite of various existing research, the review of literature explored that there is no previous study examining Kyrgyz learners’ engagement in online learning. This study thus becomes the first in this respect. Online learning is becoming essential in each country. Therefore, the need also emerged for the examination of learners’ engagement and problems related to online learning. The information acquired from such an investigation helps instructors improve the online courses; hence, the satisfaction and engagement of learners will increase.

Methodology

Results

Discussions and Conclusion

In this respect, this study was mainly conducted to investigate Kyrgyz learners’ engagement in online courses. In addition, the study attempted to examine learners’ problems related to online learning. In total, 400 Kyrgyz learners studying at university level participated in this study.

Learners’ access to technology is important since it provides a technological basis for their engagement in online courses. The study revealed that Kyrgyz learners are not able to access computers at adequate levels. Technology infrastructure was found one of the key challenges of online learning during pandemic (Heng & Sol, 2021). Similar results were obtained in another study, in which 34.2% of Kyrgyz participants could access the Internet through their personal computers (Muhametjanova et al., 2020). Learners without computer access were also found to display lower levels of cognitive engagement in online courses compared to learners having computer access. This is an anticipated result since the lack of computer access prevents learners from performing online course activities.

On the other hand, it was found that approximately all Kyrgyz learners had mobile access. It is an expected result since the mobile penetration of the country was announced to be higher than the population (Datareportal, 2019). Although mobile tools allow learners to participate in online classes and access course materials, a lack of computers prevents learners from conducting assignments provided in the context of online courses. Therefore, there is a crucial need in Kyrgyzstan that learners be equipped with computers for high-level engagement in online courses.

In the context of the results, it was found that there are three major factors related to Kyrgyz learners’ engagement in online courses. These factors are cognitive engagement, behavioral engagement, and emotional engagement. It was explored that behavioral engagement has a significant effect on Kyrgyz learners’ academic achievement. This implies that learners who obeyed the rules of online classes obtained higher grades. On the other hand, Kyrgyz learners’ achievements are not affected by their emotional and cognitive engagement. The various results are similarly revealed in the existing literature. Yet, one critical factor for the effectiveness of online learning is learners’ participation in learning activities. That is, the more learners engage in online learning, the more benefits they gain (Hu & Li, 2017).

Female learners were found to show higher levels of behavioral engagement in online courses than male learners. That is, female learners were better at following the rules of the online class, completing homework on time, and paying attention during the course. The parallel results were also revealed in the prior studies (e.g, Wang et al., 2011; Li & Lerner, 2011) that females were considered to have more “active, goal-directed, flexible, and positive actions and practices towards learning activities” than males (Engels et al., 2016, p. 1202).

Learners with prior online course experience displayed higher levels of emotional engagement compared to those without previous online course experience. This implies that while learners’ online learning experiences are increasing, their emotional engagement is also increasing. Yet, it is also essential to achieve emotional engagement in the initial online learning experience of learners. For instance, Louwrens and Hartnett (2015) recommended that emotional engagement can be established through the use of instructional activities and the continuous development of online learning communities in which learners feel free to contribute.

Kyrgyz learners experienced several problems related to engagement in online learning. The major problem for learners is the lack of Internet access in the country. The Internet penetration rate of Kyrgyzstan was found to be 40.1%. That is, among the Kyrgyz population (i.e., 6,218.616 people), there are currently 2,493,400 Internet users in the country (Internet World Stats, 2019). Hence, the government and the information and technology (ICT) industry are currently trying to increase Internet access in the country. Learners are also expecting an improvement in Internet access. That is, the majority of the learners expected that countrywide Internet connection problems should be solved. In this way, learners will not experience problems accessing live sessions, performing homework, reaching course materials, or performing other duties in the context of online courses. Hence, this will also result in an increase in learner engagement in online learning.

Currently, the university cannot allow instructors to record virtual classes due to financial problems for obtaining storage infrastructure. Yet, this prevents learners from accessing recordings when they have a suitable time and place. On the other hand, learners need to access the recordings of virtual classrooms, which are held by instructors to teach the course content and conduct discussion activities (Afacan Adanır et al., 2020). Learners also indicated a lack of interactivity in the courses. Similar results were observed in the studies of Northrup (2002), Johnston et al. (2005), Morris (2012), Akuratiya and Meddage (2020), which concluded that interaction is an expected predictor for learner satisfaction in online learning. Interactivity in online courses is important in that there should be appropriate interactivity at three levels: instructor-learner, learner-learner, and learner-content. Interactivity can be satisfied through the development and implementation of interactive activities such as applying the strategies of active learning, collaborative learning, or problem-based learning. In addition, it is essential that instructors frequently communicate with learners and provide necessary feedback. This kind of approach will increase both learner engagement and satisfaction in online courses.