Community in Online Courses: The Roles Played by Course Length, Facilitation Method, and Student Actions

• In Event: 68.051 - Revisiting the Community of Inquiry (CoI)

Abstract

Fostering a strong sense of community among students within online courses is essential to supporting their learning experience. However, there is little consensus about the facilitation methods that best enable community development or how the length of the course influences the development of community. We explore students’ sense of community across four courses that employ either instructor or peer facilitation across a full or half term. We tie students’ sense of community to their actions within these courses both confirming and challenging prior findings. These findings suggest the presence of an interaction between term length and facilitation method when considering how students’ sense of community is manifested through their actions in online courses.

Authors

• Krystle Phirangee, Ryerson University

• Carrie Demmans Epp, University of Alberta

• Jim Hewitt, OISE/University of Toronto