A phenomenological investigation of a sense of community within an adult online learning environment.
Abstract:
Learning is a process that occurs within a social context. We learn from one another through the sharing of experiences, collaboration, negotiation and articulation of ideas. This study’s intent is to understand the importance of a sense of community for online learning environments. This study will provide insight into students’ perceptions of what a sense of community is, and the benefits they receive as a result. The study will also explore if students and teachers perceive the benefits achieved from developing a strong sense of community outweigh the extra work required to build and maintain social presence, and promote connectedness within a learning group.
Introduction: Research Purpose
The purpose of this study will be to understand if a sense of community within an adult online learning environment positively influences student learning outcomes, and their perception of the quality of their educational experience. The study will explore whether or not a sense of community promotes feelings of group support, and facilitates the social construction of knowledge. This is an important question because it has been noted in literature and numerous studies, (McInnerney & Roberts, 2004; Rovai, 2002; Rovai & Wighting, 2005) that distance learning students often feel isolated, which may lead to frustration if they feel unsupported in their efforts to learn. As a result of their isolation they may choose to quit their studies. Universities suffer the consequences as a result with higher student attrition rates. However, considerable time and effort must be expended in order to successfully produce social presence and sense of community within an OLE. This subject matter seems to have not yet been fully discussed in available research. Is the increased effort that must be put forth by both students and teachers in order to achieve a sense of community deemed worthwhile? Or the time and effort hurts students by serving as a distraction? Reflective statements from students on their individual experiences of building and promoting a strong sense of community should be explored in detail in a variety of courses. Under what circumstances is it appropriate and necessary to take the time to build and nurture a strong sense of community? The study is attempting to understand if busy adult students may feel distracted by the continual demands for social interaction and social construction of knowledge by the learning group.
The study will be a qualitative phenomenological study of 300 volunteer students who are enrolled in graduate level online education courses. The research will study students for a period of two years. The research will be particularly focused on understanding the online learning students’ direct reflective statements throughout their studies about their interactions and experiences within their courses. The study will follow students starting at the very beginning of their studies as they start their most fundamental classes and continue to monitor their reflective statements and feelings as they progress to increasingly more difficult courses that require increasing amounts of group collaboration. Their reflective statements about their sense of community, the benefits of having a learning community, and other pertinent information will be gathered from surveys, online chat, individual interviews, and discussion logs. The statements will be collected and categorized within the main thematic areas. Those include sense of community, social presence and perceived workload involved with developing and
maintaining social presence. As a result of these explorations, discoveries will be summarized that will show if building a strong sense of community within every online learning environment is indeed a worthwhile and essential endeavor, or should be dealt with on a case by case basis.
Problem Statement
Weisman (2003) reports that learning online exclusively can be an isolating experience for students. Students may feel frustrated working alone without proper access to resources, or social interaction from instructors or fellow students. He also states the quality of communication or lack thereof, in the learning environment can have a large impact on the learner’s motivation. Vonderwell’s (2003) studies of twenty-two online students revealed that some students felt interactions were less personal, and they missed “one-on-one” relationships with their instructors. Some students in Vonderwell’s study reported no real social interaction in-group discussions, and that learning teams didn’t give a feeling of cohesiveness. They felt their teams were “just groups of people”. A sense of community has been shown to enhance the quality of the educational experience, (Rovai 2002; 2005). The problem is identifying whether or not building a strong sense of community in all cases for all online environments is a necessary and foregone conclusion that class designers/instructors must make. The study wishes to explore students’ reflective statements about their sense of community, and what benefits they reap from it, in a variety of online classes and learning situations. The study will attempt to discover if at times building and interacting with the learning community becomes a distraction. Adult graduate students may eel that they are simply too busy to truly dedicate themselves fully and passionately to the care and maintenance of a social learning community. They may choose instead to intentionally limit their interactions or become passive observers within online courses. They may also choose not to develop their own social presence, or provide means of mutual support for other members. Some students may actively seek group belongingness while others disengage as a coping measure to simply complete the course quickly and efficiently.
Significance of the Study
Rovai & Wighting (2005) point out that improving students’ sense of community and belonging enhances retention and overall student satisfaction with online studies. Conversely they state a sense of alienation, can reduce the sense of community, dampen student achievement and may increase drop out rates.
Rovai & Wighting (2005) also indicate poor experiences within the classroom environment can lead to negative feelings about the school in general which would again point to higher drop out rates. They contend when learners perceive a sense of community their learning process is made easier and more comfortable. However a review of literature reveals building a sense of community takes considerable effort. Rovai (2002) states that a sense of community involves individuals feeling a sense of mutual responsibility, and “commitment to shared goals”. Conrad’s research (2005) shows that instructors must develop a social presence and be seen as a “real person”, and in addition provide a sense of immediacy, and constantly monitor and guide their online students. Most available literature does not take into account the real time and effort it takes to maintain a true thriving learning community. Nor does current literature consider what instances is the actual building of community an extravagance in terms of time, money and personal effort.
Research Questions
Do students perceive the quality and depth of their learning experience to always be enhanced by an online learning environment that promotes a strong sense of community, or at times is it considered a distraction? The first aim of the study will be to discover if a sense of community does indeed facilitate feelings of comfort, less isolation and a sense of belonging within a group of distant learners who have never actually met. The second aim is to understand if a sense of community among group members always leads to mutual feelings of support, more fruitful collaboration, and increased mutual social construction of knowledge. In final, the study will determine if students feel the added burden of creating and maintaining a sense of community through social presence is indeed worth their time and effort.
Literature Review
First it is necessary to understand fundamental theories on social learning. Vygotsky, (1981), championed the idea that learning is a process that occurs through social participation and interaction. Human behavior (learning) cannot be isolated as a separate entity but must be defined within its social and historical context. The fundamental ideas of Vygotsky (1981) include that knowledge is built through other’s experiences, ideas and assistance as well as personal experience. Lave & Wenger (1991) contend that situated learning occurs through membership and active participation in what they call ” communities of practice”. Lave & Wenger (1991) also state that reciprocal and active relationships between learners calls for strong social networks within the classroom.
Driscoll (2000) states that in order for learning to occur, (particularly those engaged in constructivist learning processes) one must “provide for social negotiation as an integral part of learning.” She emphasizes that theories of social negotiation and socially constructed knowledge are fundamental in the positions of such noteworthy education and psychology experts as: Piaget, Vygotsky, Bruner, Cunningham, and Honebein,. She also states that constructivist learning must also “support mutual perspectives and the use of multiple modes of representation. ”
McMillan and Chavis (1986) state that a sense of community has essentially four components. Those elements are:
1. Membership – Members feel a sense of belongingness to a group.
2. Influence €“ Each member’s opinion matters to one another and can influence others.
3. Integration & fulfillment – Each member has a “shared faith” that their own needs will be met through the group’s commitment to shared goals. For example, if a member has a question others will offer assistance.
4. Shared emotional commitment €“ Members will share their experiences, and personal history together.
McMillan and Chavis’s ideas on sense of community are widely accepted “because of (their) theoretical base and their qualitative empirical support.”, according to Blanchard (2005).
Fisher, Sonn, and Bishop’s work, (2002) “The psychological sense of community” proposes that people just naturally feel more supported as a positive consequence of sense of community. They feel they can relate more fully to one another as people, “aspire to new goals beyond their previous personal interests”, and have feelings of “social connectedness.” An important aspect of their findings is that individuals who indeed feel lonely or isolated “will invest more energy in seeking a sense of community and support.” A critical conclusion that the study reached is that students who feel such intense isolation “will move (on) to another school or educational delivery medium to satisfy their basic needs”
Rovai & Wighting (2005) who performed quantitative research on feelings of alienation and community, showed an “inverse relationship between alienation and a sense of community.” The quality of the study “Feelings of alienation and community among higher education students in a virtual classroom” is deemed excellent, in that the instrumentation used is considered valid including the Dean Alienation Scale, and the equally reliable standard, the Classroom Community Scale, (Rovai, 2002). In the study there was no differential attrition, and it utilized a convenience sampling of 117 volunteer college students in 6 online graduate courses, with a 93% volunteer rate.
The classroom community scale, Rovai (2002) is deemed valid and credible in that it was “developed, refined, and field-tested” with a volunteer sampling of 375 graduate students enrolled in 28 different online courses. Rovai reports that he used two internal consistency estimates for reliability. “Cronbach’s coefficient α for the full Classroom Community Scale was .93 and the equal-length split-half coefficient was .91, indicating excellent reliability.”
According to Conrad (2005), there is a large amount of literature that proves a sense of community is important for the successful educational outcomes for online learners. She cites the following sources in reaching her conclusion: (Gundawardena & Zittle, 1997; Harasim, Starr, Teles, & Turoff, 1996; Hiltz & Wellman, 1997; Rheingold, 1993). She states, a sense of community feels like home. It’s a safe place where members feel mutual trust and respect. She explains that it provides an ” €¦invitation for intellectual exchange, and a gathering place for like-minded individuals who are sharing a journey that includes similar activities, purposes and goals.”
Rovai’s numerous studies conclusively show how important a sense of community is within an online learning environment. A sense of isolation and lack of community may be one of the many factors in higher drop out rates for distance education courses over traditional classroom courses. Rovai (2002) reached substantial conclusions on a quantitative study entitled “Sense of community, perceived cognitive learning and persistence in learning networks”. The study involved 314 students within 26 graduate courses in an online environment. The volunteer rate was 65.9%, with 314 out of 478 students participating. The study results showed a significant relationship between a student’s sense of community and their “perceived cognitive learning.”
His study “provided evidence that a significant relationship exists between classroom community and perceived cognitive learning.” He also concluded those who have a significant sense of community and “perceive greater cognitive learning” do indeed feel less isolated, feel more satisfied with their coursework, and the results are less attrition for the university. His studies revealed that students could indeed feel connected to a group and feel a sense of belonging in a virtual community. The research showed that students with a stronger feeling of community felt they learned more. A sense of community therefore adds a greater feeling of satisfaction with a course. Conversely the study revealed that a sense of alienation, can reduce the sense of community, dampen student achievement and may increase drop out rates. However, Rovai cautions against firmly suggesting a “causal relationship between sense of community and cognitive learning.” There may indeed be an unknown third variable that may be present that is related to the other two variables that may explain the relationship the results.
From the above mentioned study by Rovai, (2002) he determined that if the learning environment fosters the feeling that the students are indeed a part of a group that is working on a “valuable and worthwhile endeavor” and that they are indeed interconnected with one another, “It may be possible to reduce feelings of alienation and increase sense of community within the context of a virtual classroom.” Some significant reflective statements from the students include: “I think we all came away with a sense of family; it has made responding to each other comfortable.” Anther student’s comments included “I was very apprehensive about this class but the other members have helped me feel good about it €“ especially through the use of discussion boards”.
In a qualitative study of 17 online graduate students who began studying together as a group in May of 2002, Conrad study published in 2005, gathered the participant’s significant statements about community. The study does seem to be valid, but the studied group is rather small. She collected data five times throughout the two years of the program. First she administered a questionnaire, to gather their perceptions about online learning, and a sense of community. After they completed their first course (n=14) she administered a second questionnaire with some of the questions repeated. The third data gathering included a research assistant who interviewed 11 volunteer students for 60 minutes each. The interviews were taped and transcribed. 18 months after the start of the program she again sent out a questionnaire in which participants (n=13) were asked about their sense of community and how it affected their feelings of the course. Her fifth data collection included meeting with 6 students utilizing a focus group interview two years after they began the program. She analyzed the data inductively by reviewing her questionnaire results, and transcripts. From this she organized the data and it’s interrelationships, categorized it and came up with themes. Did the sense of community indeed help them academically in their studies? She states that, the students did indeed indicate they felt more comfortable in discussions and postings. Six of her participants pointed out that they felt there was more open sharing of resources, and five talked of increased collaboration on projects.
In her conclusions, Conrad (2005) also summarized her data and created a “Participants’ Thematic Notions of Community”. Participant’s significant statements included items relating to friendship, relationship, familiarity, collaboration, common purpose, support, technology, group/place/exchange, and group. Students reported they also felt good instructors helped to create a sense of community by being socially present, energetic, responsive to student needs, and being knowledgeable on the subject matter. Producing this type of social presence surely would require significant amounts of an instructor’s time, which is one of the issues this study would like to address.
How can one create a sense of community? According to the findings of Perry and Edwards (2005) in their qualitative study of nursing students, it would seem that it does take considerable effort. They found that exemplary instructors facilitated creating communities of inquiry. Although the study does not give much detail into the methodology as to how the students were selected, nor the number of students in the population, it is felt their findings seem logical. They report that competent online instructors accomplish building a community of inquiry through thoughtful social, cognitive and teaching presence. They challenge their students to high standards by engaging in a variety of affirming behaviors. They show encouragement, and value students as individuals. They craft useful and thoughtful responses that show cognitive presence. They affirm students by recognizing potential, validating learners and treating them with respect.
Shea (2006) performed an extensive study of 2,036 college students who took classes solely in an online environment. The intent of his study was to ascertain what students felt contributed to a sense of community in an online learning environment. His hypothesis was that students’ perception of teaching presence is directly associated with their sense of learning community. The impressive sample involved students from 32 state universities, 470 instructors and 581 courses. The selected target population is credible due to its strong population validity. In all the study gathered 2,314 evaluation questionnaires. The study showed that “directed facilitation” from the instructor, that is an instructor who took an active and social presence, was deemed very important to building the sense of community within the course.
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