Assessing tertiary students’ self-engagement characteristics in the online environment

Self-engagement characteristics are essential for a successful online education. Therefore, with the sudden transformation in education in many tertiary institutions because of the Covid-19 pandemic, self-engagement characteristics among tertiary students must be assessed to evaluate their success online. This study used a cross-sectional online survey to assess students' self-engagement characteristics in the online environment at six public tertiary institutions in Ghana. The data were analyzed using an independent t-test, factorial, and regression analysis based primarily on 367 student respondents. The main finding suggests that university students are adult learners and possess self-engagement characteristics to successfully participate in the online teaching and learning environment implemented in Ghanaian Universities during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is because they demonstrated learner autonomy and motivation to learn, which are characteristics of adult learners. The study findings also show that university students as adult learners have fundamental digital skills and are technologically ready to join the online learning environment, implying that Ghanaian universities should continue to implement and further develop the online learning environment. Consequently, the continuous implementation of online learning in Ghanaian public universities would improve Ghanaian students' digital literacy skills, a step toward the acquisition of 21st-century digital skills hence closing the digital divide gap between university students of developed and developing countries. The continuous implementation of online learning at Ghana's public universities would revolutionize teaching methods and pedagogies, necessitating the enhancement of digital literacy levels of adult educators (i.e. lecturers/instructors) in order to contribute to the successful implementation of online learning.