| Sumario: | Background: Engagement is an essential ingredient in achieving learning success. It can be understood as a dynamic process that unfolds over time, and is shaped by several factors related to the learner and the learning context. Understanding how learners fluctuate between engagement and disengagement is vital for many stakeholders. Especially in the case of first‐year bachelor's students who are prone to high attrition and low success rates, it is important to consider engagement or lack thereof longitudinally. Objectives: This study aims to analyse the longitudinal engagement trajectories of first‐year business students to inform interventions that can foster sustained engagement. Methods: Using the VaSSTra methodology, we explore the longitudinal engagement of students in the first year of a Business bachelor's program. A large dataset of 13 semester‐length courses of 651 students and 8463 student enrollments is examined. Results and Conclusions: Three engagement states (active, average and disengaged) and three distinct longitudinal engagement trajectories (mostly engaged, mostly average and mostly disengaged) are identified. Stability and heterogeneity were explored using within‐student and between‐student entropy. The Mostly Engaged trajectory was stable with infrequent changes in engagement across courses and scored the highest. The Mostly Average trajectory was the most frequent with less stability and more transitions between states. The Mostly Disengaged trajectory became more disengaged in courses of the second semester. The results of our study show that interventions and support should be fortified in the first semester itself to support students. Lay Summary: What is already known about this topic ? ○A large percentage of first‐year bachelor's students do not succeed in their first academic year, leading to higher risks of drop out across programs and universities.○Several studies have examined connections between learners' engagement within the online learning environments and achievement. But these studies often focus on single courses applying only a specific method to profile student engagement and do not focus on the evolving dynamic nature of engagement.○The Vastrra Method combines person‐based methods, sequence analysis and life‐events methods to analyse longitudinal trajectories of engagement across time.What this paper adds ? ○A comprehensive dataset of complete online trace data of business bachelor students through 13 first year courses is leveraged to find trajectories of engagement in the first year of study.○Three engagement states (active, average and disengaged) at the course level are observed which can then be profiled into three engagement trajectories (mostly engaged, mostly average and mostly disengaged) at the (first‐year) program level.○A shift towards disengagement is observed from first semester courses to the second semester courses, especially in the Mostly Disengaged trajectory. This reflects in significantly lower achievement observed in the second semester.Implications for practice and/or policy ? ○Student engagement unfolds over time and can evolve through multiple courses studied at the same time, which is common in several university programs.○It shows that interventions and support should be fortified in the first semester to support student engagement and success.○Studying longitudinal trajectories may elucidate program level engagement and regulatory behaviours in students and can advise program managers and institutional heads towards policies on engagement both at the course and program levels.○The results from this study can be effective for policies and practices at the institutional level.
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