Building online communities: exploring the conditions for interpersonal and cognitive connections
Date
2022
Authors
Padayachee, Kershree
Kluyts, Marike
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Abstract
Emergency remote teaching and learning (ERT&L) arose out of necessity
in 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and continued in 2021. A
critical but oten over-looked aspect of ERT&L was the feeling of
isolation that increased significantly for sta and students alike, with
the remoteness making it dicult to connect and form communities.
Given the importance of connection and community in learning,
academic success and general wellbeing, the question that unfolded for
us as academic developers involved in the academic support of
students and sta, was how to re-create spaces for connection and
community (interpersonal and cognitive) in the current online
environment. In this chapter, we reflect on this question in the context
of the various communities within the Academic Development (AD)
spheres in which we were involved during the Covid-19 pandemic. These
included postgraduate writing communities, a community of
Instructional designers at the institution, and faculty teaching and
learning communities that emerged between AD sta and lecturing
sta. Data was generated through an autoethnographic approach
involving free writing of our experiences, followed by coding and
thematic analysis using the Community of Inquiry Framework (Garrison,
Anderson and Archer, 1999) which focuses on the three types of
presences required for the successful functioning of online learning
communities, viz., social, cognitive and teaching presence. Four
characteristics emerged that enabled the transformation of the online
space into a platform for knowledge building and knowledge sharing.
We discuss these characteristics and the implications thereof for
ongoing student and staff support, with a cautionary note on the
impact of social positioning on community engagement. We conclude
with some suggestions for ways in which the various online
communities might be maintained and strengthened to enhance
teaching and learning beyond Covid-19.