Connecting and Belonging: Building relationships in online synchronous learning space.

Dates

Thursday, February 15, 2024 - 14:00 to 16:00

Location

Online

Presenters: Dr Carol Azumah Dennis, Dr Lucy Rodriguez-Leon, Dr Sarah Lightfoot, Dr Philippa Waterhouse, Dr Carolyn Cooke and Dr Lore Gallastegi

We know that students recognise and value opportunities for connection in the context of a distance-learning environment. But what kinds of relationships can we build in these spaces and how? 

In the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies at The Open University, our research demonstrates the multi-faceted and nuanced nature of the term ‘connection’. 

Join us as we share our research and engage you in a conversation about what it might mean to connect and belong online.

Programme:

13.45 – 14.00              Coffee and Registration

14.00 – 14.05              Welcome - Padlet

14.05 – 14.20              Keynote: Creating Sticky Learning Spaces, Dr Carol Azumah Dennis

14.20 – 14.35              The emotional labour of online course discussion forums: insights from an autoethnography, 

                                    Dr Lucy Rodriguez-Leon 

14.35 – 14.50             The Thinking for Myself Project: creating an online environment that enables

                                   undergraduate distance learners independent thinking, Dr Sarah Lightfoot

14.50 – 15.05              Break

15.05 – 15.20             Wellbeing of distance education students: The importance of their work and family, 

                                   Dr Philippa Waterhouse

15.20 – 15.35             Concurrent (Full-time) students in Education Studies (Primary), Dr Carolyn Cooke and

                                   Dr Lore Gallastegi  

15.35 – 15.55             Group activity: Head, Heart and Hands

15.55 – 16.00             Closing Comments

Keynote: Dr Carol Azumah Dennis - Sticky Learning Spaces

Presentation

This presentation explores sticky learning spaces. While the importance of sticky learning spaces (spaces to which people feel they belong) is well established, creating this sense of belonging is the single most significant challenge of online distance education. The absence of in-person interactions can lead to feelings of isolation for students. It is simply not possible (or desirable, or necessary) to replicate a traditional classroom dynamic, with immediate feedback and spontaneous discussions. But it is important to mitigate the associated risk of dis-engagement, motivation, and the depth of learning experiences. 

This keynote draws on a number of Praxis research projects to explore ways in which students have experienced online learning spaces and what conclusions they enable us to draw about connection and belonging.  

Lucy Rodriguez-Leon - The emotional labour of online course discussion forums: insights from an autoethnography.

Presentation

Online discussion forums are now frequently used as pedagogic tools in Higher Education in both face-to-face and distance learning contexts. Whilst students’ engagement with, and outcomes from, discussion forums is a vibrant area of study, less attention has been paid to the emotional and affective aspects of participation.  

This presentation reports findings from an autoethnography, which captured and thematically analysed the first author’s experiences and affective responses to encountering discussion forums whilst studying three online postgraduate modules.

Analysis shed light on the complex entanglement of personal factors, course-content related factors, and activity related factors that shaped decisions around participation. The study illustrates the potential unpredictability in learners’ responses to discussion forums; it urges educators to avoid typecasting individual learners, or learner groups.  

Sarah Lightfoot - The Thinking for Myself Project: creating an online environment that enables undergraduate distance learners independent thinking

Presentation

This Associate Lecturer led project arose from a concern that some undergraduate, distance learners found independent thinking challenging. I reasoned students would benefit from opportunities to think aloud, to rehearse their ideas, and realise how their reflections relate to the process of becoming an academic writer and thinker. Six participating students co-created an online, dialogic Thinking Environment to enable this (Kline, 2015). Students reported a positive impact on their capacity for independent thinking. However, they stressed how their involvement had boosted their sense of wellbeing through the connections they had made with each and an enhanced their sense of belonging to the university.

Philippa Waterhouse: Wellbeing of distance education students: The importance of their work and family

Presentation

Lifelong learning is essential to ensure a responsible, competitive, and skilled workforce. Whilst mature learners are a diverse group, in comparison to their younger counterparts they are more likely to have employment and/or caring responsibilities. This project considered the association between student wellbeing and their work and family roles, as well as explored students’ perceptions of institutional support and the strategies they used to manage their studies alongside work and/or family. A self-report survey consisting of opened ended and closed questions was completed by 348 final year undergraduate distance education students. The results showed that students who reported higher levels of perceived conflict between their work and their studies and their family and their studies were at increased risk of reporting more severe symptoms of mental distress (as measured by the DASS-21 – a widely used measure of depression, anxiety, and stress). This presentation will discuss key findings from the qualitative data regarding connection and belonging in online   spaces including the student-tutor relationship, peer communities and sense of connection to the subject.

Dr Carolyn Cooke and Dr Lore Gallastegi - Concurrent students in Education Studies (Primary)

Presentation

Concurrent study (studying two modules together) is an Open University (OU) phenomenon. In other institutions it is known as ‘full-time study’. The number of concurrent students is increasing at the OU, however due to the history of the OU as a part-time institution, students studying concurrently, often means working across, between, and possibly despite, existing systems and structures. Both of our Praxis projects highlight the complex enabling relationships at play for our concurrent students, where explicit interactions between study, home life, work life and past experiences motivated and supported them to take control of their studies. The role of sudden unexpected events in life or work, and the subsequent impacts on mental wellbeing are highlighted as a key driver for reducing study intensity, but also the ability to maintain study motivation at a part-time level was important to their overall retention. Therefore, the projects also highlight the way in which reductions in study intensity challenge traditional module-level retention and progression reporting, where deferring a module can arguably be considered an important retention strategy.