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Online Learning News and Research
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Sunday, October 28, 2001
http://www.aln.org/alnweb/journal/Vol5_issue2/Brown/Brown.htm The Process of Community-building in Distance Learning Classes Ruth E. Brown, University of Nebraska at Kearney ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to develop a theory about the process through which community formed in adult computer-mediated asynchronous distance learning classes. A grounded theory design incorporated archived class input as well as interviews with twenty-one students and three faculty members from three graduate-level distance education classes. A three-stage phenomenon was ascertained. The first stage was making friends online with whom students felt comfortable communicating. The second stage was community conferment (acceptance) which occurred when students were part of a long, thoughtful, threaded discussion on a subject of importance after which participants felt both personal satisfaction and kinship. The third stage was camaraderie which was achieved after long-term or intense association with others involving personal communication. Each of these stages involved a greater degree of engagement in both the class and the dialogue. Causal conditions, intervening conditions, strategies and consequences were enumerated. A visual model of the entire process of community-building was advanced. Benefits of community were noted, and suggestions were made to facilitate the formation of an online community....
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