Adult Learning in an Online Community

A common strand in feminist literature is the female learner’s need for connectedness and interrelationship. Although some regard this as perpetuating the stereotypical view of women as nurturers, others, such as Gougeon (1999), are convinced of the validity of this differentiation from male learners. The formation of an online community mediated by technology is seen as pivotal to the creation of a successful learning environment that promotes relationships and acknowledges student experiences. Rose (1995) offers an example of such a community. Despite the trials experienced by the students, she concludes that the students created an online learning community that acknowledged and respected differences. Although the experience of learning in an online community is relatively new and much of the literature calls for further studies into the concepts of community and social presence, online course designers are attempting to build community and to support the development of relationships. However, there is some evidence that learners, themselves, do not have a common understanding of community.

For example, Conrad (2002) points to student definitions of community that revolve around identification of a core of familiar learners across courses or a quantitative definition based on the number of postings to an online conference. Despite this difficulty in defining community, Conrad found that learners adjusted to the online environment and accommodated what they saw as the requirements for building the online community. In contrast to the idealized pictures of online communities found in the literature, the learners Conrad describes built and maintained the community as a necessary tool for completing the required task. Their approach to community was pragmatic; they deliberately built a safe environment that allowed them to use the community and any learning for what it could do for them personally. A valuing of the community, interdependence, mutual support, and a concern for others does not appear to have been present in the group or individuals. The admission by some that their postings were completed to meet mandatory requirements makes it unlikely that collaborative construction of knowledge, in which the sum exceeds the individual parts, was a priority.

As a result of their practical approach to community, the students adopted and complied with unwritten standards of etiquette and respect. The requirement for mutual respect and courtesy in the cyber-classroom is in line with Machanic (1998), who stresses the need to design online classrooms that are safe for students. Conrad attributes the group’s tacit acceptance of appropriate behaviour as an expression of the social inclination to be nice people and inhibition created by loss of anonymity and the knowledge that as a cohort members were in this group for the long term.

Overall, these learners did not demonstrate an awareness of the support for knowledge creation and the nurturing that an online community is believed to provide. Their appreciation of their community appears to have arisen from the safety they built into it and, for some, the social connection. Conrad, in fact, concludes that a greater sense of community is more likely to develop in other Internet sectors such as chat rooms. She speculates that in this instance the acquisition of learning did not arouse interest and inspire the passion of shared interest.

In feminist pedagogy, the presence of a meaningful community among online learners is key to the creation and sustainment of a learning environment that promotes interaction for knowledge retention and knowledge building. For those who subscribe to feminist pedagogy, this article raises questions about learner understanding of, attitudes to and practices in online communities.

Conrad, D. (2002). Deep in the hearts of learners: Insights into the nature of online community. Journal of Distance Education, 17(1), 1-19.