Student Voice: Engageli

As you might know, UniSQ has been piloting Engageli for a number of years now. Engageli is an online learning environment that aims to virtually replicate the classroom collaborative experience in both small and large scale scenarios. Pilot participants have been impressed with its synchronous and asynchronous capabilities, offering them opportunities to teach in a way that they hadn’t thought possible online.

But what do our students think? In this blog we ask our student representative, Damien Lowe, for his thoughts on Engageli.

What platforms do you currently use for classes (or in your workplace) and what do you think of them?

I’ve used blackboard (as a learner at another university), Zoom, and MS Teams. I found these to be a bit clunky. When I say clunky, I mean that their display didn’t look very nice, and it was difficult to find your way around each, especially if they were embedded within a LMS. Small elements like sharing screen had restricted applications with additional steps and limitations applied in their use. There was nothing seamless about them.

I think Zoom improved in its ease of use because of COVID and the number of people using the tool. (I had used it before 2020 with my employer.) MS Teams and Blackboard seemed to always be playing ‘catch up’ with Zoom – each had limited capacity. Blackboard could be very ‘slow’ when using it. Overall, each of these tools added features in such a way that they were no longer simple or seamless in their use.

What are your first impressions of Engageli?

Engageli, I very quickly found, was user friendly. Each of the features, such as sharing your screen, was easy to find and use.

There were many features: videos, chats, sharing screen, emojis, tables etc. The podium was a great feature: I knew who was in charge and who was talking. I didn’t have as many drop outs. The interface looks nicer and is easier to navigate.

Reinventing the wheel would be difficult to do – a good challenge, but Engageli seem to have made their online meeting/learning platform more user friendly. They didn’t over complicate it. They simplified its use for the average user, while at the same time adding features relevant to the classroom.

Do you think classes within Engageli would be different to those platforms you have previously experienced? And if so how?

Yes – I think it would be different, but only because it is a more user friendly interface. For me, when using Engageli, it seems like it can do the same as others, but better. It has a better set up and allows different ways for me to interact and react. For example, the emojis allow more options for me to share my responses.

Thinking critically, there isn’t a lot of difference, but from a student perspective, the key thing is that I can see who the teacher is and I can see who is talking. I like that I can interact with the class, but having the teacher as a focus point helps me to pay attention. Especially because now we often engage with videos, having the teacher central in the recording allows a clear focal point – less distractions.

Also, I prefer Engageli’s tables to break-out rooms. When you are ‘dumped’ into break-out rooms, it’s quite strange because you’re moved quickly into a separate room with a group of people you don’t know. In Engageli, you can still see the teacher at the podium and they can visit your table, so there isn’t the sense of disconnect and isolation. It’s a really neat feature. Also, there’s no sense that you’re going in-and-out and in-and-out of break-out rooms – it’s more seamless.

Do you think your behaviours, as a student, would be different within Engageli? And if so how?

I don’t think there would be a noticeable difference, but I do think I would be less distracted. I think I would be able to learn a bit better because of this and because there is one key focus point at all times.

Because it is seamless, there was no time lag or disjointedness in things such as sharing screen. There were no times the lecturer was struggling with the technology – flustered and frustrated by it. It seemed smooth for teachers and students.

I also think I would enjoy using it more – and as a consequence I would interact with it better. There is a more relaxed (as opposed to corporate) atmosphere because of the platform’s interface.

In some ways, it’s also about the teacher’s behaviour. If it’s not seamless and easy for them to use, then their use of the tool is going to impact on our learning experience and our behaviours.