Voluntary participation in online tutorials : if I build it, will they come?

![CDATA[With the increased use of Learning Management Systems and blended learning approaches in higher education, many students have little option but to participate in online activities. However, this is no guarantee that these activities are well received or effective. Compulsion is often enforced by attaching assessment weighting to the activities. There may be times when we want to design online learning activities that don’t have an element of compulsion to complete or, at least, forcing all students to complete all parts regardless of their prior knowledge. On the other hand, designing meaningful online activities takes considerable time and effort so there needs to be some assurance that if they are not compulsory they will be useful to the students they are targeted at. This paper looks at the patterns of use and student satisfaction for a set of online tutorials that were designed to be supplementary and voluntary. The results suggest that students will engage with non-compulsory material where they perceive the activity will help them achieve their goals.]]