Reducing Isolation through Regional Mentors and Learning Communities: A Way to Support Rural Learners

Abstract Reinforcing and facilitating learning communities is a strategy that has been used to decrease attrition rates in traditional campus-based programs, and it has been hypothesized that applying principles of learning communities in distance education programs could have similar positive outcomes. To facilitate the development and maintenance of regional learning communities within the Mild/Moderate Distance Degree and Licensure Program at Utah State University, highly successful graduates of the program are employed as mentors within each broadcast locality to engineer regional opportunities for studying and socialization. Program evaluation respondents indicate that mentoring experiences were very helpful as they progressed through the courses and practica. Moreover, graduation rates increased from 53% to 75% since the inception of this approach. In the last 10 years, the number of undergraduate and graduate students who participate in distance education programs has steadily increased (Parsad & Lewis, 2008). Students are opting to participate in distance versus traditional campus-based courses for a variety of reasons, such as the lack of geographic proximity to university classrooms and financial or family obligations that preclude attendance in traditional campus-based programs (Braun, 2008; Riffell & Sibley, 2004; Yudko, Hirokawa, & Chi, 2008). Increasing the pool of potential new teachers by providing access for all qualified applicants to special education teacher training programs via distance education programs is particularly pertinent in light of nation-wide shortages of special education teachers (Katsiyannis, Zhang, & Conroy, 2003), especially in rural areas (Menlove & Lignugaris/Kraft, 2004; Sundeen & Wienke, 2009; Williams, Martin, & Hess, 2002). Distance teacher preparation programs have become an increasingly popular and effective vehicle for preparing highly qualified special education teachers in rural areas (Brownell, Bishop, & Sindelar, 2005; Ludlow Sc Brannon, 1999; Spooner, F. Spooner, Algozzine, & Jordan, 1998). Distance education programs use a wide variety of technology-mediated formats, such as two-way real time video or audio that connects the instructor in one location with students in another location (Cox, Carr, & Hall, 2004), asynchronous online courses that permit instructors and students to interact at times of their own choosing (DeNeui 8c Dodge, 2006; Steinweg, Davis, & Thomson, 2005), and to maximize the benefits of both methods, hybrid formats that combine two-way real time video or audio and online coursework (Collins & Berge, 1998; Shen, Wang, & Pan, 2008; Teng & Taveras, 2004). The results of several studies indicate that technology-mediated courses lead to similar endof-semester outcomes when compared to traditional face-to-face courses (Carmel & Gold, 2007; Schrum, Burbank, & Capps, 2007; Smith, S. B., Smith, and Boone, 2000; Spooner, F., Jordan, Algozzine, & Spooner, 1999; Steinweg et al., 2005). On the downside, distance education programs may require students to work in relative isolation with much weaker connections to teachers and peers (DiRamio & Wolverton, 2006; Everhart, 1999; Misanchuk & Anderson, 2001; Motteram & Forrester, 2005). Although many distance education instructors use strategies, such as online discussion forums and chat rooms, to establish and maintain online or electronic learning communities (Bradford, Porciello, Balkon, & Bachus, 2007; Motteram & Forrester, 2005), some students are timid about this type of "public" posting (Conrad, 2002; McSporran & Young, 2002). This feeling of isolation that results from the lack of personalized attention from faculty and fellow students, along with increased family and personal demands that compete with students' commitment to course completion, has been associated with higher attrition rates in distance education programs tiian in traditional campus-based programs (Carr, 2000; Morris & Finnegan, 2009). …