Enhancing Visibility of Distance Learners To Promote Sense Of Community

ABSTRACT

Communities comprised of students enrolled in distance education differ from traditional students in residential campus sites not only in the separation of distance and time and the invisibility of peers, but also because the majority of the members are adult learners. My research is dedicated to promoting online students' sense of community and collective community efficacy by enhancing the visibility of students' relevant information and connections with others in the online educational setting. Following a user-centered design approach, I am probing the stakeholders' needs and building prototypes grounded in these findings. With iterative evaluations in the field and lab studies, I aim to build and evaluate the impacts of these interactive visualizations on distance students' sense of community.

References

1. Kwamena Appiah-Kubi and Duncan Rowland. 2016. PEER Support In MOOCs: The Role Of Social Presence. Proceedings of the Third (2016) ACM Conference on Learning@ Scale, ACM, 237--240. http://doi.org/10.1145/2876034.2893423
2. Hanna Ashar and Robert Skenes. 1993. Can Tinto's student departure model be applied to nontraditional students' Adult education quarterly 43, 2: 90--100.
3. Alexander Astin. 1984. Student involvement: A developmental theory for higher education. Journal of College Student Personnel 25, September: 297--308.
4. Zane L Berge and Mauri P Collins. 1995. Computer mediated communication and the online classroom: distance learning. Hampton press Cresskill.
5. Sarah Carr. 2000. As distance education comes of age, the challenge is keeping the students. Chronicle of Higher Education: A39--A41.
6. Jonathan I Compton, Elizabeth Cox, and Frankie Santos Laanan. 2006. Adult learners in transition. New directions for student services 2006, 114: 73--80.
7. K Frankola. 2001. The e-Learning Taboo: High Dropout Rates in Online Courses. Syllabus, 14--16.
8. Zixiu Guo, Felix B Tan, and Kenneth Cheung. 2010. Students ' Uses and Gratifications for Using Computer-Mediated Communication Media in Learning Contexts Students ' Uses and Gratifications for Using Computer -Mediated Communication Media in Learning Contexts Students ' Uses and Gratifications for Using C. Communications of the Association for Information Systems 27, 20: 339--378.
9. Starr Roxanne Hiltz. 1994. The virtual classroom: Learning without limits via computer networks. Intellect Books.
10. Grace Kena, Lauren Musu-Gillette, Jennifer Robinson, et al. 2015. The Condition of Education 2015. NCES 2015--144. National Center for Education Statistics.
11. Karel Kreijns, Paul A. Kirschner, and Wim Jochems. 2003. Identifying the pitfalls for social interaction in computer-supported collaborative learning environments: A review of the research. Computers in Human Behavior 19, 3: 335--353. http://doi.org/10.1016/S0747--5632(02)00057--2
12. Gabriele Piccoli, Rami Ahmad, and Blake Ives. 2001. Web-based virtual learning environments: a research framework and a preliminary assessment of effectiveness in basic it skills training. Mis 25, 4: 401--426. http://doi.org/10.2307/3250989
13. Karyn E Rabourn, Rick Shoup, and Allison Brckalorenz. 2015. Barriers in Returning to Learning: Engagement and Support of Adult Learners. 1--32.
14. Carolyn Penstein Rosé, Ryan Carlson, Diyi Yang, et al. 2014. Social factors that contribute to attrition in MOOCs. Proceedings of the first ACM conference on Learning @ scale conference - L@S '14: 197--198. http://doi.org/10.1145/2556325.2567879
15. Alfred P. Rovai. 2002. Building sense of community at a dstance. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning 3, 1: 1--16.
16. Mickey Shachar and Yoram Neumann. 2003. Differences Between Traditional and Distance Education Academic Performances?: A meta- analytic approach. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning 4, 2.
17. Thomas D Snyder and Sally A Dillow. 2015. Digest of Education Statistics 2013. NCES 2015-011. National Center for Education Statistics Snyder, T.
18. Pei Chen Sun, Ray J. Tsai, Glenn Finger, Yueh Yang Chen, and Dowming Yeh. 2008. What drives a successful e-Learning? An empirical investigation of the critical factors influencing learner satisfaction. Computers and Education 50, 4: 1183--1202. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2006.11.007
19. Olson T.M; and Wisher R.a; 2002. The Effectiveness of Web-Based Instruction An Initial Inquiry _ Olson _ The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning 3, 2.
20. Barry A Vann and Barbara E Hinton. 1994. Workplace social networks and their relationship to student retention in on-site ged programs. Human resource development quarterly 5, 2: 141--151.
21. J. B. Walther. 1996. Computer-Mediated Communication: Impersonal, Interpersonal, and Hyperpersonal Interaction. Communication Research 23, 1: 3--43. http://doi.org/10.1177/009365096023001001
22. G G Wehlage, R A Rutter, G A Smith, N Lesko, and R R Fernandez. 1989. Reducing the Risk: Schools as Communities of Support.

Index Terms

• Human-centered computing

  • Collaborative and social computing

    • Collaborative and social computing theory, concepts and paradigms

      • Computer supported cooperative work

    • Empirical studies in collaborative and social computing

  • Visualization

    • Visualization application domains

      • Visual analytics