Learners' Perspectives on what is Missing from Online Learning: Interpretations through the Community of Inquiry Framework

By Emma J. Stodel, Terrie Lynn Thompson, Colla J. MacDonald. 2006

325 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Despite the success that instructors and learners often enjoy with online university courses, learners have also reported that they miss face-to-face contact when learning online. The purpose of this inquiry was to identify learners’ perceptions of what is missing from online learning and provide recommendations for how we can continue to innovate and improve the online learning experience. The inquiry was qualitative in nature and conducted from a constructivist perspective. Ten learners who had indicated that they missed and/or would have liked more face-to-face contact following their participation in an online course were interviewed to elicit responses that would provide insights into what it is they miss about face-to-face contact when learning online. Five themes emerged: robustness of online dialogue, spontaneity and improvisation, perceiving and being perceived by the other, getting to know others, and learning to be an online learner. Garrison and colleagues’ (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000) community of inquiry framework was used to interpret the findings.

Subfields: Developmental and Educational Psychology, Education, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1669fe7544ae1b000448adddebe27431a265150e

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In Developmental and Educational Psychology

In Education

In Social Psychology

Citations in the corpus

Researching the community of inquiry framework: Review, issues, and future directions (2007, background): “Also, the increased ease with which media such as audio and video can be introduced into virtual learning environments may have significant implications for the structure, development, and interaction of the three presences (Arbaugh, 2005b; Stodel et al., 2006; Wagner, 2006).”
Measuring Student Engagement in the Online Course: The Online Student Engagement Scale (OSE). (2015, unknown): “…an effective community of learners: social presence, teaching presence, and cognitive presence (Akyol & Garrison, 2011; Akyol & Garrison, 2014; Annand, 2011; Garrison, 2007; Arbaugh, 2008; Garrison & Anderson, 2003; Garrison & Arbaugh, 2007; Shea et al., 2010; Stodel, Thompson, & MacDonald, 2006).”
Does the Community of Inquiry Framework Predict Outcomes in Online MBA Courses (2007, methodology): “While the dimensions of the CoI framework have been examined via content analysis (Anderson et al., 2001; Garrison et al., 2001; Stodel et al., 2006), the survey-based measures that were adopted in this study allow for the use of a larger and wider sample in a relatively efficient manner.”