The Process of Community-Building in Distance Learning Classes

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The Process of Community-Building in Distance Learning Classes

Ruth E. Brown

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop a theory about the process through which community formed in adult computer-mediated asynchronous distance learning classes. A grounded theory design incorporated archived class input as well as interviews with twenty-one students and three faculty members from three graduate-level distance education classes. A three-stage phenomenon was ascertained. The first stage was making friends on-line with whom students felt comfortable communicating. The second stage was community conferment (acceptance) which occurred when students were part of a long, thoughtful, threaded discussion on a subject of importance after which participants felt both personal satisfaction and kinship. The third stage was camaraderie which was achieved after long-term or intense association with others involving personal communication. Each of these stages involved a greater degree of engagement in both the class and the dialogue. Causal conditions, intervening conditions, strategies and consequences were enumerated. A visual model of the entire process of community-building was advanced. Benefits of community were noted, and suggestions were made to facilitate the formation of an on-line community.

Keywords

Asynchronous, Engagement, Learner-centered

Annotation

Research question: How was community formed in an adult computer-mediated distance learning class?
Three levels of community were identified. The first was making on-line acquaintances or friends.(Some students considered them friends. Others didn’t.) followed by membership in the group and camaraderie.
Each level is more engagement.
Some students did not experience community.
Introduces the idea of time triangles, with new users having to spend more time understanding the technology and veteran users spending more time building community.
Research shows that there is no time length that makes someone a veteran user.
This article creates a great theory of community building but the technology discussed is old and outdated, and so the ideas may not transfer as well today.

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