Classrooms where the students and the instructor are separated from each other in time and space. Other terms that also refer to online distance education include Internet-based education and Web-based education. The primary means of delivery for online distance education is the Internet, with materials available to students 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Students may access the material whenever the time is best for each individual student’s lifestyle and from a place where the student has Internet access and a computer to connect to the Internet. The majority of interaction is asynchronous, not real time. (See Moore & Kearsley, 2005; Simonson, et al., 2003.)
Published in Chapter:
Community in the Online Environment
Janet Lear (University of Nebraska at Kearney, USA)
Copyright: © 2009
|Pages: 5
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-198-8.ch053
Abstract
Students enrolled in a face-to-face classroom have the opportunity to interact with their peers and develop a sense of community, feelings of belonging, and connectedness. However, students taking courses accessed through the Internet, while they do have classmates, generally cannot see the other students and usually do not interact synchronously with these individuals because the flexibility of both time and location allow for differences in course access. This lack of face-to-face synchronous interaction with other students enrolled in online classes has led to concern about online education because of the social nature of learning. To facilitate the social nature of learning, instructors in the online environment may design classes that engage students and promote the building of community among the students enrolled in the course. Those instructors who perceive that social learning is important will, therefore, encourage students to build the connections that lead to a sense of community and a successful online learning experience.