How do distance learners connect? | Education - Phys.Org

In a typical college classroom, social connections are formed through face-to-face interactions, writes Jessica Hallman, Marketing Communications Specialist at Penn State University.

Researchers from the College of Information Sciences and Technology found that creating computer-supported collaborative learning environments could help online learners build community and increase the likelihood that they would remain in their academic program.
Photo: Adobe Stock/rocketclips

Through informal chats before and after class, group project meetings, and other exchanges, students are able to build community with their classmates and peers that often enrich their academic experience. 

But how do distance learners connect?
In a recent study, a team of researchers from Penn State's College of Information Sciences and Technology found that creating computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments could help students identify common characteristics and life experiences they share with peers, which can build community and increase the likelihood that students remain in the program.

"The online world is missing social opportunities," said Na Sun, doctoral student in the College of IST and lead researcher on the project. "Unlike face-to-face contact, it's hard to reach out to others when you can't see them. That kind of presence and sense of community is very important."

To conduct their research, the team recruited more than 400 Penn State World Campus students to join an online community they created using Slack Workspace. Then, they developed a chatbot to prompt discussion topics and facilitate connections among users...

"When learners feel [connections as a result of] this social integration, it is more likely that they will want to stay [in the program]," she said. "It's very important for us to build this social integration, not only on the instructor side but also on the technology side. The whole ecosystem should work together for this belongingness for online learners to feel like they are part of the community and that people are supporting them."
Read more... 

Additional resources
Na Sun et al. How Do Distance Learners Connect?, Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI '19 (2019). 
DOI: 10.1145/3290605.3300662

Source: Phys.Org