Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to present findings from research funded by Laureate Education in 2014, that investigated the extent to which (if at all) a cohort of students in the Professional Doctorate of Higher Education program evolved into an authentic online learning community. This programme attracts students from all over the world who interact in large and small learning teams. This three-phased research work involved module audits, students’ questionnaire and in-depth interviews. We will discuss the results of all three phases of the research while comparing and contrasting them and drawing final conclusions. Phase one consisted of auditing three out of the nine taught modules in the programme. The audit explored students’ online interaction patterns within and between three modules (beginning, middle and towards the end of programme). Using the Community of Inquiry model (Garrison & Anderson, 2003) we found that although cognitive presence as higher order learning intent was evident in the whole class and small team discussion, social presence (as emotional and social connections with other students) was less evident or absent in some cases in the modules. We found that teaching presence was very important, predominantly on the mediation with cognitive presence although the former was not overtly obvious in the mediation of social presence. The researchers are still undertaking data analysis of the last and final research phase and outcomes will be presented at the conference and compared and contrasted with the previous ones.

References:
[1] Garrison, D. R., & Anderson, T. (2003). E-Learning in the 21st Century. A Framework for Research and Practice. London and New York: Routledge Falmer.

Keywords:

Doctorate, Community, social presence, teaching, team, online.