Exploring the relationship between attitude towards collaborative learning and sense of community among college students in online learning environments: a correlational study

As online courses become increasingly common, we must ensure that the students in the virtual classroom experience a nurturing sense of community. Feelings of community increase information flow, cooperation, available support, and a sense of commitment towards group goals. Many studies have explored the significance of sense of community and collaborative learning activities in an online learning environment. The aim of this study, however, was to find a relationship between student attitude toward online collaborative learning and their sense of community in an online environment. Using a correlational study, the relationship between students\u27 sense of community and their attitude toward online collaborative learning was determined. Collaboration and sense of community were moderately correlated, whereas, Pearson\u27s product-moment correlational coefficient was, r(198)=0.672, p\u3c0.01. As collaboration increased, students\u27 sense of community increased proportionally. Moreover, it was also noticed that the degree of correlation between sense of community and collaborative learning was higher among graduate students when compared to that of undergraduate students. Furthermore, a higher degree of correlation also existed between a positive attitude towards collaborative learning and the dimensions of sense of community when compared to that between a negative attitude towards collaborative learning and sense of community. The findings in this study will aid educators and instructional designers to rethink the design of their online courses to incorporate elements of collaborative learning and strategies to develop a sense of community, which, in turn will help in increasing the learner satisfaction and learning outcomes in such courses

“It Takes a Village!”: Social Capital Building in a Remote Hawai‘i Community

In this cross-sectional study, we investigated the multi-level educational intervention among youth in a low-income, remote community in Hawai‘i, United States. The program aided with middle schoolers’ transition into adulthood through youth-adult partnerships, teen mentoring, and community sustainability. Drawing upon social capital framework, we explored participants’ experiences and how the intervention promoted positive developmental outcomes among the youth. We recruited youth from a rural Title I Middle School in Hawai‘i. Nine youth (nboys=6, ngirls=3; Mage=13; 44.9% Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, 44.4% Black or African American, 33.3% White, 22.2. % Asian; participants could select multiple races), teen mentors (ngirls=3; Mage=18), and an adult partner (male; 24 years old) participated in 26 virtual club meetings in Spring 2021. This qualitative study consisted of 27 participants who took part in focus groups and observations. Three themes emerged: skill development, youth-adult relationship building, and sense of belonging. These social components encouraged the sharing of knowledge and feelings among participants on horizontal and oblique directions through reciprocity and helped create a social norm of a supportive environment to make youth feel belonging to the group and the local community. Multi-level interventions that draw upon community resources and youth-adult partnerships can benefit at-risk, minority adolescent populations. We identified non-familial role models and a sense of belonging to one’s community as two key protective factors that may lead to positive cognitive changes when youth transition into adulthood

The promise and perils of asynchronous learning: how faculty, students, and administrators can collaboratively increase retention and satisfaction in the online classroom

This paper explores some of the major challenges faced by faculty, students, administrators, and support staff in retaining online students, and doing so while earning high marks for the quality of each course. A number of strategies are explored beginning with the need to carefully consider effective mixes of technology, structure, and content in the classroom environment. With an emphasis on social presence and careful consideration of how students use technology to access the class learning management system (LMS), the paper offers a variety of options to build classroom spaces that foster a sense of community and collaboration. Thereafter the paper addresses best practices to turn well‐ considered design elements into a classroom experience which addresses issues related to retention, achieving learning outcomes, and ensuring students and faculty invest in the learning process from day one. By addressing concerns shared by the major actors in the field of online education, realistic best practices can be identified to help ensure online learning achieves, if not exceeds, retention and satisfaction levels seen from brick‐and‐mortar classrooms

A scoping review to establish the relationship of community to the lives of looked after children and young people

Friendship networks and relationships with communities are important parts of the lives of looked after children and young people (LACYP). Much of legislation, policy, practice and research focuses on „the care experience‟ itself, as distinct from young people‟s everyday lives and their connectivity with wider environments. Considerable lack of understanding remains about what being „in care‟ means. This often results in prejudice and stigma. Groups set up specifically for LACYP offer opportunities to develop networks and relationships with adults and young people, and to raise awarenesses. Transitions may happen early and be experienced frequently by LACYP, however, they can offer new opportunities and positive relationships with different people. Meaningful participation in communities such as schools is an important factor in developing stability in relationships. Concepts of participation and empowerment form part of an ecological framework which locates the community context as central to building resilience for LACYP. What constitutes community cohesion and connectedness for LACYP requires a fine balance between the interests of protection and participation. Successful interconnectedness is a matter of shared concern for all. The key challenge remains that of identifying how stable community relationships for LACYP may be strengthened and supported to dynamic mutual benefit. These documents are outputs from the same project: 1) an end of project discussion paper; 2) an extended version of the discussion paper; and 3) four short guides for practice and polic

Making the Connection: Moore’s Theory of Transactional Distance and Its Relevance to the Use of a Virtual Classroom in Postgraduate Online Teacher Education

This study explored the use of the Web-based virtual environment, Adobe Connect Pro, in a postgraduate online teacher education programme at the University of Waikato. It applied the tenets of Moore’s Theory of Transactional Distance (Moore, 1997) in examining the efficacy of using the virtual classroom to promote quality dialogue and explored how both internal and external structural elements related to the purpose and use of the classroom affected the sense of learner autonomy. The study provides an illustration of the complexity of the relationship that exists between the elements of Moore’s theory, and how the implementation of an external structuring technology such as the virtual classroom, can have both positive impacts (dialogue creation) and negative impacts (diminished sense of learner autonomy). It also suggests that, although Moore’s theory provides a useful conceptual “lens” through which to analyse online learning practices, its tenets may need revisiting to reflect the move toward the use of synchronous communication tools in online distance learning

The Minority Student Mentoring Group (MSMG) for CSD Students: Perspectives, Goals, and Outcomes Six Years After Inception

Students from historically marginalized racial and ethnic (HMRE) groups often face challenges within the university environment due to implicit biases, microaggressions, and systemic racism. To help counteract these challenges, the Minority Student Mentoring Group (MSMG) at Towson University was launched in 2016 to provide mentoring, support, and a sense of community for students from HMRE groups who are enrolled in speech-language pathology and audiology programs. Rapid growth of the program and anecdotal evidence suggested MSMG participation was impactful; as a result, this study was designed to examine program outcomes more formally using a mixed-methods approach. Eleven participants completed an on-line survey and six completed a follow-up virtual interview. Most participants reported the MSMG had a positive impact on their academic experience and about a third indicated their participation influenced choice of graduate program and career path. Thematic analysis yielded four themes: Belonging and Connections, Representation, Empowerment, and Paying it Forward. Via these themes, it was clear this type of group can provide an opportunity for students from HMRE groups to find community and belonging within a Communication Sciences and Disorders program. In addition, the group provided opportunities for students to develop social capital through information, relationships, and networks formed. A description of the timeline and programming for the MSMG is provided as a possible model for Communication Sciences and Disorders program directors, chairpersons, and deans to consider as part of their holistic efforts to create supportive environments for students

Mixed reality for cross-cultural integration. Using positive technology to share experiences and promote communication

The opinion article highlights some innovative resources to deal with the challenges of migrations, relying in the field of positive technologies and, more specifically, in the concept of mixed reality. In the contemporary society, migrations are a common phenomenon that rises cultural and psycho-social issues, as well as political and economic challenges. People move from their place of origin for educational or professional purposes or because they are forced to leave due to political, economic and social conditions, and also natural disasters which produce population flows. Whatever the push and pull factors are, when people move permanently or temporarily they tend to maintain close ties with their place of origin (with people, places, culture, practices etc.), while trying to develop attachment with the place of residence. Immigrants construct their identities in the context of a negotiation between old and new homes’ contexts. However, such a process is not free from issues and relevant consequences on immigrants’ well-being. Some psychosocial issues can be identified regarding identity re-negotiation while moving to a different place, and cultural integration: immigrants could experience feeling of isolation, estrangement and alienation, related to the difficulty to create strong social ties in the new place; the “acculturation stress” associated to adaptation to new culture, language and practices. Positive technologies offer innovative resources to deal with these challenges, by considering the human health and well-being as the main objective for technological advancement. In a broad sense, Positive technology may be used to structure, augment or replace user experience with digital content; also, positive devices may be used to promote positive emotions (hedonic technology), to support the user in the achievement of engaging and self-actualizing experiences (eudaimonic technology), and to enhance connectedness among individuals, groups and societies (social-interpersonal technologies). In such perspective, the mixed reality technology provides resources for intervention in that it is based on the addition of digital elements in the physical environment, instead of its substitution with an immersive experience which, in this case, may act as a palliative care for sadness but does not help to integrate oneself in a new, “real” physical environment and social context. Specifically, mixed reality based Positive technologies can help in maintaining the relation with the home country, and also in fostering the inclusion in and attachment to the receiving society, by providing users with sources of identification that stretch beyond the national and local contexts of their old and new homes. Addressing the social connectedness, the mixed reality can provide the medium to share the meanings that people attach to places, people and cultures, and creating belonging in the receiving society. Indeed, people can better approach the receiving society by understanding the cultural meanings connected with places, history and activities. The concept expressed in the opinion article is still in its infancy. However, it provides an innovative idea for positive technology (at the social-interpersonal level), which may guide the development of future devices and applications for enhancing health and well-being in the growing population looking for a new life in places distant from home

Podcasts as a conversational pedagogy

The use of technology such as podcasts, social networking sites, wikis, and Google docs for communicating information which supports teaching and learning in tertiary institutions is well documented (Bates, 2005). These tools have been shown to enhance traditional lectures and tutorials (Salmon, 2007). Little attention, however, has been given to the use of conversational approaches when using these tools and their potential in developing alternative pedagogical approaches to teaching. This article examines the use of a conversational style podcast in an online pre-service early childhood teacher education programme. The podcasts were initially used to disseminate information and respond to the students’ needs, however, their conversational use revealed a number of unexpected outcomes. Analysis of the podcast conversations that occurred between the two lecturers, and the student feedback to these, were used to identify unexpected outcomes for students enrolled in the programme. These included the ‘humanising’ of the e-learning environment and the sense of community that emerged. This paper argues that the affordance of conversational podcasts personalises the e-learning environment, enhances students’ and lecturers’ motivation, and engenders a greater connectedness with the university context

Sense-making of consumer wellbeing in information technology-enabled services from a relational ontology position

Information technology (IT) built into products and services have become the key drivers for service innovation. How information technology-enabled services (ITESs) affect consumer wellbeing has increasingly become a concern to service scholars. In response to this, transformative service research (TSR) has emerged as a new stream in service research. This paper investigates consumer wellbeing derived from the consumption of ITESs in consumers’ daily lives. A mixed-method approach was employed in our study, including self-reflective reports, in-depth interviews and visual artistic methods. We demonstrated that a relational ontology, drawing on the ‘focal things’ concept (Borgmann, 1984) and sociomateriality (Orlikowski, 2009), could be used as a lens for us to understand consumer wellbeing in ITESs. We used four vignettes to demonstrate how relational ontology can enhance our understanding of consumer wellbeing in ITESs. Theoretically, this paper contributes to TSR by proposing and demonstrating the need to shift or at least extend the extant predominant technology ontology in marketing literature to make sense of consumer experiences and wellbeing in ITESs. In practice, this research encourages ITESs designers to emphasise the relational entanglement of technology with consumer routine practices in their service innovations for the purposes of consumer wellbeing