If You Build It, They Will Come: Student Clubs in the Digital World

Background

With the advent of online learning, students and their professors worked together to create learning communities in their classrooms. Most universities grappled with how to create authentic learning experiences in the abstract of virtual classrooms (Shea & Bidjerano, 2010; Smart & Cappel, 2006). To address this, many universities adopted a standard classroom structure that mimicked traditional classrooms. The structure of these classrooms included tools for collaborative learning such as discussion board, live chat areas (both synchronous and asynchronous), and areas for document storage (Zhu, 2012). Most universities who offer distance-learning classes purchase platform services from virtual learning companies who provide the framework for classroom shells. The arrangement of the components is selected and supported by these companies. Therefore, there is not much opportunity for rearranging course structure. Over time, online students and faculty gained comfort interacting within these conceptual spaces in the classroom despite their lack of control of the creation of it (Zhu, Valcke, & Schellens, 2008).