With the rise of MOOCs, distance learning has been thrust into the spotlight.  While learners can now engage in high quality courses from around the world, it remains primarily a unilateral experience, with most students consuming the content but rarely engaging with their peers.

A recent study from Penn State explores the more traditional distance learning landscape to see whether students can be encouraged to collaborate more effectively with their peers, and how this can enrich the academic experience.

The researchers recruited around 400 students from Penn State’s World Campus to join an online Slack community, which came complete with a chatbot designed by the team to prompt discussion and facilitate connections.  Each volunteer completed a survey pre and post the study, along with a control group of students who weren’t given access to the Slack community.

The data revealed that those with access to the community tended to feel a greater sense of community than their peers who engaged with each other through more traditional means.

“Belongingness and well-being are very important for people to live a good life,” the researchers say. “Grades are just one part of the learning process. It’s also about the experience and how students feel about it.”

Connectivity

The survey was followed up by interviews with participants to gain qualitative insights into their experience.  The interviews showed that people tended to make a lightweight connection through their shared social identities, including similar hometowns or family status.

Collaborations were also a common method for forging connections, with participants often selected due to similar schedules or work ethic, with these often discovered by reading posts made on the community.

Respondents shared how helpful it was to talk with those in a similar life stage to themselves, providing a valuable insight into their wider life outside the classroom.

The authors believe that such community platforms should strive to build and maintain a range of opportunities for users to make connections with their peers.  These should involve both strong and weak connections, whether for social purposes, project collaborations or even career advice.  They believe that such facilities could help with the retention of distance learning students.

“When learners feel [connections as a result of] this social integration, it is more likely that they will want to stay [in the program],” they say. “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.”