The dramatic expansion of online learning programs for adult degree-seeking professionals has opened significant access and opportunity for institutions of higher education, as well as for the adult learners they serve. However, this recent dramatic increase in online graduate degree offerings has posed challenges to educators and students. One of the most significant challenges is building and maintaining strong connections, and a sense of community, among the participants within the online setting. Social climate theory provides a useful lens for a reconsideration of the social climate of an online learning environment (synchronous and asynchronous) as embodying a “personality” that iteratively shapes the learning community and the experience of participants, and is shaped in return. This chapter presents an in-depth analysis of how educators can strategically enhance online classroom communities for adult degree-seeking professionals through the application of social climate theory principles and a proposed conceptual framework.
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In the recent literature regarding online learning for adults, the critical role of community for successful achievement of learning outcomes is more widely recognized than one to two decades ago when a more technical and self-directed conceptualization of online learning predominated (Hartley Bendixen, 2001; Land Greene, 2000; Rovai, 2002; Song, 2005). In the early days of online learning, numerous studies explored its key attributes including flexibility (Chizmar Walbert, 1999) and convenience (Poole, 2000), while a lack of community in online learning environments was specifically identified as a key challenge and cause for learner dissatisfaction (Song, et al., 2004; Rovai, 2002; Shea, et al., 2001). The ways in which adult learners and their instructors adapt, perceive, and co-create community within the virtual classroom is influenced by the extent to which social connections are engendered by all participants, contributing to an overall social climate (Oren, et al., 2002; 2015; Ni, 2013). F Moreover, studies have consistently signaled that virtual classroom social climate elements, such as having more opportunities for human interaction with instructors and classmates, directly impact student satisfaction with their online learning experience (Ghaderizefreh Hoover, 2018; Shea, et al., 2002). Although research suggests that the virtual classroom climate with regard to community is affected—positively and negatively—by instructor behaviors, course design and structure, course clarity, and student connectedness (Kaufmann, et al., 2015), the strategic cultivation of a positive climate remains elusive to some faculty who are responsible for the facilitation of high quality online learning experiences for adults in professional degree programs (Dewaele, et al., 2022; Sithole, et al., 2019). The increased enrollment in online education for adult learners in the wake of COVID-19 has put significant additional pressure on instructors to demonstrate a facility with employing different strategies to create a positive climate in online classes (Qui, 2022; Shahnama et al., 2021; Dewaele et al., 2022).