{"id":166,"date":"2025-03-18T10:51:40","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T10:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/H890Conference\/?p=166"},"modified":"2025-03-18T10:51:40","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T10:51:40","slug":"diminishing-distance-fostering-belonging-by-mature-he-students-as-communities-of-inquiry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/H890Conference\/index.php\/2025\/03\/18\/diminishing-distance-fostering-belonging-by-mature-he-students-as-communities-of-inquiry\/","title":{"rendered":"Diminishing Distance: Fostering belonging by mature HE students as Communities of Inquiry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Diminishing Distance:\u00a0 Fostering belonging by mature HE students as Communities of Inquiry<\/strong>
\nBina Radia-Bond<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Key words: Communities of Inquiry; Higher Education; belonging; online learning; TEL; mature students.<\/p>\n

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The initiative of the \u2018university of the air\u2019 in England over fifty years ago was pivotal in the advancement of social mobility through opening access to education by all learners.\u00a0 Since the early radio and television broadcasts, the advent of the World Wide Web and exponential progress in digital technologies have widened access by dissolving geographical distance; temporal constraints and socioeconomic barriers. \u00a0The flexibility to study anytime anywhere enables millions of mature students to incorporate studies alongside work and caring responsibilities to accomplish educational ambitions that may otherwise remain unfulfilled.\u00a0 Yet, rates of attrition are higher in online learning courses compared with studying on campus.<\/p>\n

While students withdraw for a variety of reasons, a sense of belonging and inclusion could motivate persistence with studies.\u00a0 More than access and flexibility, the human need to belong to a community is prioritised by HE students as the most important feature in their study experience (Thomas, Herbert and Teras, 2014; Barber et al, 2021 ). \u00a0This study focuses on belonging by mature HE students in online distance learning by exploring the potential of the Community of Inquiry framework (CoI) (Garrison, Anderson and Archer, 1999) to galvanise online learners as a community. \u00a0A budding body of literature recognises correspondence between the \u2018collaborative constructionist\u2019 principle that underpins CoI, and a sense of belonging that develops through participation in critical inquiry with a peer group. \u00a0This research contributes insights from lesser-known experiences of mature HE students.<\/p>\n

Asynchronous text-based forums are the most common mode of communication in technology-enhanced learning.\u00a0 CoI theorises overlapping cognitive, social, tutor, and emotional presences in forum discussions, providing necessary conceptual and analytic tools.\u00a0 Research methods include thematic analysis of secondary data in the form of transcripts of a collaborative discussion forum to identify interactions that represent different presences.\u00a0 This will be related to results from a CoI survey, which enumerates the presences, to interpret meaning of the numerical data.\u00a0 Posts in \u2018social presence\u2019 will be expanded for focussed discursive analysis to identify prevailing sociocultural discourses that are implicit in forum interactions.\u00a0 Interviews will also be offered to understand students\u2019 subjective experience of forum participation and perception of (non)belonging.\u00a0 The option of online face-to-face, or email interviews, will ensure widest inclusion of student voices.<\/p>\n

It is anticipated that results from the mixed methods approach will provide a multi-perspective view of learners as social actors, whose participation in discussion forums is shaped by their particular social experiences.\u00a0 These inform the perspectives that they contribute to the joint inquiry.\u00a0 Expressions of affect will highlight emotionality, overlooked in the emphasis on rational thinking.\u00a0 The mediating role of the tutor will also be apparent.\u00a0 Content of the overlapping presences, together with students\u2019 own stories, will illuminate cognitive processes, social identities and discourses that shaped inclusion and exclusion in the particular Community of Inquiry.\u00a0 The ability to target specific elements for reinforcement or review will demonstrate the effectiveness of CoI as an appropriate framework towards fostering a greater sense of belonging by all students.<\/p>\n

The study will be of interest to all HE educators as most universities now offer online learning options, following the pivot to remote learning during the Covid-19 pandemic.\u00a0 Understanding pedagogic processes that (dis) engage students in the community that evolves in online learning environments can inform both design and delivery of technology-enhanced learning.\u00a0 Findings will be disseminated through a dedicated forum; scholarship sharing events, and communities of practice within the university; open journals and conferences.\u00a0 \u00a0Future research will seek to understand student perspectives on non-participation in collaborative discussions forums.<\/p>\n

References<\/p>\n

Barber, M., Bird, L., Fleming, J., Titterington-Giles, E., Edwards, E. and Leyland, C. (2021) Gravity assist: Propelling higher education towards a brighter future: Report of the digital teaching and learning review [Barber review]<\/em>: Office for Students Publication. Available at: https:\/\/www.officeforstudents.org.uk\/publications\/gravity-assist-propelling-higher-education-towards-a-brighter-future\/<\/a> (Accessed: March 2025).<\/p>\n

Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T. and Archer, W. (1999) ‘Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education’, The Internet and Higher Education,<\/em> 2(2-3), pp. 87-105.<\/p>\n

Thomas, L., Herbert, J. and Teras, M. (2014) ‘A sense of belonging to enhance participation, success and retention in online programs’, The International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education,<\/em> 5(2), pp., 69-80.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Diminishing Distance:\u00a0 Fostering belonging by mature HE students as Communities of Inquiry Bina Radia-Bond   Key words: Communities of Inquiry; Higher Education; belonging; online learning; TEL; mature students.   The initiative of the \u2018university of the air\u2019 in England over fifty years ago was pivotal in the advancement of social mobility through opening access to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[67,65,66,68,25,3],"class_list":["post-166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-belonging","tag-communities-of-inquiry","tag-higher-education","tag-mature-students","tag-online-learning","tag-tel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/H890Conference\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/H890Conference\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/H890Conference\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/H890Conference\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/H890Conference\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/H890Conference\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":167,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/H890Conference\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166\/revisions\/167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/H890Conference\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/H890Conference\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/H890Conference\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}