Shifting Boundaries: Community in a Blended e-Learning Experience

This paper explores how learners construct and maintain community in a blended e-learning program in a graduate degree program. Findings suggest that individual’s expectations influenced their perceptions of the value of community, learners actively gauged how much of themselves to share, and feelings of community were enhanced by mixing face-to-face and online interactions. This study explores how the development of community can enhance learning within a blended approach to learning. Blended, or hybrid, learning often refers to a mix of face-to-face (F2F) and web-based learning components (Rovai & Jordan, 2004). It can also include a blend of synchronous and asynchronous learning events, individual and collaborative activities, and several different online media within one e-learning course (Shank, 2004). Blended learning ostensibly leverages the advantages of both technology-based and F2F environments (Duhaney, 2004). By creating alternative learning spaces, it potentially increases and changes the interactions and relationships possible between participants in a virtual learning context. Online communities become part of this mix. Haythornthwaite, Kazmer, Robins, and Shoemaker (2000) highlight the re-positioning of the learner as a member of a learning community rather than an isolated island. Learning and community have long been a central theme in adult education (Hugo, 2002). Moreover, there is a growing body of research that articulates the pedagogical benefits of online learning communities (i.e., Afonso, 2006; Garrison, 2006). However, learning communities and blended learning approaches are not without tensions. An increasing interest in these constructs, coupled with a lack of clarity, raise important questions for adult educators. Social learning theorists believe learning is enhanced by commitment to the collective good and when people engage in learning through and with others (Jonassen & Land, 2000; Lave & Wenger, 1991). Assumptions of a sociocultural learning perspective include: (a) learning is a process of meaning making, not knowledge transmission; (b) learning is a dialogue; and (c) the locus of meaning is found in communities of practice, not the head of an individual (Jonassen & Land). Guided by this perspective, this study explores blended learning as a pedagogical strategy to enhance teaching and learning within higher education. Questioning how development of online community within a blended learning design can enhance learning leads us to explore how participants in an online learning event construct and maintain relationships and community. Research Methodology This interpretive study focused on students in a health-field related Master’s degree program offering both online and on-campus courses at a Canadian university. This program incorporates several blended learning strategies: (1) all students participate in an online and F2F orientation session at the beginning of the program; (2) online courses use a mix of asynchronous and synchronous media, namely WebCT and Elluminate; and (3) students may take a mix of online and F2F courses. In most courses, participation in weekly online discussions is a graded requirement. During the summer of 2006, seven students who had participated in at least one course online were interviewed by telephone or F2F. Participants were women between the ages Learning In Community: Proceedings of the joint international conference of the Adult Education Research Conference (AERC) (48th National Conference) and the Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education (CASAE)/l'Association Canadienne pour l'Etude de l'Education des Adultes (ACEEA) (26th National Conference). Edited by Laura Servage and Tara Fenwick (June 2007)