August 14, 2014

‘Sense of belonging’ an online learning challenge

Creating and maintaining a ‘sense of belonging’ is an important consideration for teachers in higher education institutions who are designing and facilitating online programs.

This was a key finding in a paper by Dr Lisa Thomas (picture above), James Herbert and Marko Teras from UOW, recently published in the International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education. Dr Thomas is from UOW’s Learning Teaching and Curriculum (LTC) Unit. James and Marko were employed into LTC to work on this research project in 2013.

Their paper, entitled ‘A sense of belonging to enhance participation, success and retention in online programs’, highlighted that online learning presented an opportunity to expand access to higher education to traditionally underrepresented students. However, for various reasons retention rates for online learning are low compared to students on campus.

The authors pointed out: “Fostering a sense of belonging and personal connection to learning may present a way to improve the learning experience and retention of these students, especially in the first year.”

Their paper examined how ‘sense of belonging’ was understood and experienced by students and the strategies used by academics to foster belonging in online learning.

The research was guided by the over-arching questions (a) what challenges exist for students from non-traditional backgrounds engaging in online learning and (b) what strategies support learning for students from non-traditional backgrounds in the online learning environment?

The researchers sought data from students and academic teachers across Australia. It was through the analysis of interview and focus group data, that the theme of ‘sense of belonging’ emerged.

While some students did gain a sense of belonging through an online learning context others expressed an absence of such ‘belonging’ highlighting, for instance, how they preferred social interaction.

There were references to feeling disengaged and lonely.

The paper highlighted that when academic teachers explicitly adapted their online program to enhance sense of belonging, they noticed changes in retention and student satisfaction.

But it was no easy task as academic teachers stressed that it was not easy to try to encourage students to form an online learning community and to feel engaged.

They said there was a need to assist students to participate in online activities with people they haven’t met. And, that there should be an equal balance between task-driven interactions for learning and socio-emotional interactions for social well-being.

“Icebreakers were a strategy reported to promote collaboration between students as a prelude to establish a sense of belonging to a community of learners,” the authors reported.

For example, one academic got his students to post Google map links to where they lived so that they had a sense of where everyone was – a “sense of place”. Others set up discussion forum spaces that they called “student lounge” or “café space” to enable students to have unmonitored discussions.

Real-time interactions were used in some online courses to promote a sense of belonging. Virtual classrooms, using technologies such as Adobe Connect enabled students and staff to interact with each other from various locations.

The authors said that becoming an online teacher requires academics to reconsider aspects of their teaching practice pointing out that an “added layer of complexity was involved”.

Their report concluded that “where academics were able to foster a sense of community, collaboration, and personal engagement in learning, students tended to enjoy their learning experience more, and were less inclined to withdraw from learning”.