“Academic engagement” is defined in federal regulations as “active participation by a student in an instructional activity related to the student’s course” and is a critical term to understand for a variety of distance education compliance purposes. For example, for a week during an academic calendar to count as a “week of instructional time” for financial aid purposes, there must be at least one opportunity for academic engagement provided during that week. And while students do not necessarily have to take advantage of these opportunities each week (though, such engagement should be an expectation of the institution), it is still important to monitor each student’s academic engagement and proactively reach out to offer support where students appear to be struggling. Doing so supports compliance with the “regular and substantive interaction” (RSI) rule for distance education courses. Finally, keeping track of each student’s academic engagement—at least to the point that the last date of academic engagement can be easily identified when the need arises—is essential for determining a student’s “last date of attendance” for enrollment and financial aid purposes. 

In Practice

Activities that would qualify under as academic engagement include, but are not limited to, attending a synchronous online or in-person class/lecture, completing an asynchronous lecture, tutorial, webinar, etc. with interactive elements (e.g., an in-video quiz or activity), submitting an academic assignment, taking an assessment, participating in study groups or online discussions assigned by the institution, or interacting with an instructor about academic matters. Meanwhile, simply logging into an online class without further participation or engaging in academic counseling or other opportunities that are not specific to the course itself would not qualify. Again, we want to focus on ensuring opportunities involve “active participation by a student” and that this participation would occur in the context of “an instructional activity related to the student’s course.”

When considering how best to incorporate opportunities for academic engagement into an online or hybrid course, it is important to keep the following in mind: 

  • Ensuring there is at least one opportunity for academic engagement each and every instructional week will help prevent financial aid eligibility concerns from arising. 
  • Unlike the RSI rule, academic engagement opportunities do not need to directly involve opportunities to interact with an instructor; though this can be helpful in many cases, as discussed below.   
  • While RSI has no strict weekly requirement as long as it occurs on a “scheduled and predictable basis,” adding opportunities for instructor-led interaction (e.g., soliciting and responding to questions, providing feedback on discussion posts, etc.) to a number of academic engagement opportunities can be an effective and efficient compliance strategy. 
  • As part of RSI compliance, institutions are also responsible for the following: “Monitoring the student’s academic engagement and success and ensuring that an instructor is responsible for promptly and proactively engaging in substantive interaction with the student when needed on the basis of such monitoring, or upon request by the student” (emphasis added). 
  • Academic engagement is also used to determine attendance in a distance education course. In the event a student withdraws from a course the last date of academic engagement will be used to calculate the last day of attendance. 

FAQs

How does academic engagement relate to credit-hour estimates?

While these are closely related concepts, credit hour estimates can be based on a far wider range of “academic activities” and the total amount of student work involved. Academic engagement as more observable and active forms of participation whereas credit hour estimates can account for more passive work related to the course as well (e.g., passively watching a lecture video or reading without interacting with others or completing an accompanying assignment).

Why are “weeks of instructional time” important to keep in mind when designing a course and how does academic engagement, specifically, factor into this equitation? 

To be eligible for federal student aid, academic programs generally need to be at least a year in length, defined in federal regulations as “a minimum of 30 weeks of instructional time” (34 CFR 668.3). A week of instruction time is considered a consecutive seven-day period in which some opportunity for academic engagement is provided. Where asynchronous coursework would be involved in context of distance education, the following two requirements must be met:

  • the institution makes available the instructional materials, other resources, and instructor support necessary for academic engagement and completion of course objectives; and

  • the institution expects enrolled students to perform educational activities demonstrating academic engagement during the week

Finally, instructional time should not include scheduled breaks or periods of orientation or counseling.

If students are interacting with artificial intelligence rather than an instructor when participating in an educational activity, does this still count as academic engagement? 

Yes. While this would not qualify as RSI because a qualifying instructor is not available for interaction in this case, the student would still be completing an activity that counts as academic engagement assuming the student is still actively participating and activity is related to the course.