Individual cognitive differences and student engagement in video lectures and E-learning environments

Student engagement is a research area which has been focused on for many years but gained growing interest especially in recent years. Studies in the literature indicate that there is an agreement on the relationship between learning outcomes and student engagement in school and classroom context. But, what is not yet clear is the impact of cognitive individual differences of learners on student engagement, especially when exposed to video lectures. Thus, this chapter focuses on understanding individual cognitive differences in order to improve student engagement. The rest of this chapter will be organized as follows: Firstly, student engagement is defined based on different engagement models with a special focus on video lectures. Secondly, previous research will be reviewed to discuss the relationship between student engagement and cognitive individual differences. This is followed by recommendations that can be used for further student engagement research.