Investigating links between students’ agency experiences in digital educational interactions, participation and academic performance

Abstract

Despite promises of student agency in digital education, student agency is mostly assumed and less researched. This paper provides a way to understand the role of agency in digital interactions, and it explores how students’ agency experiences link to student participation and academic performance. In the study, data were collected from nine Danish university students. Students’ agency experiences were identified and interpreted using the Adapted Participation Gestalt Framework. Student participation was collected using data from a digital system used for the educational interactions. Students’ academic performance was measured using students’ self- reported grades. The study makes two key contributions: it identifies the participation gestalt of the interaction in question and maps developments in students’ experiences of agency constituting the gestalt; and second, it suggests that students’ agency in interactions is associated with grades and participation patterns. Finally, the paper discusses how the findings inform future research.