Comparison of Connectedness in Online, Blended, and Face-to-Face Research Methods Courses among Hispanic and Low-Income Students
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55420/2693.9193.v11.n2.39Keywords:
Teaching modality, connectedness, social presence, Latinx, Hispanic Serving Institution, online teaching, blended learningAbstract
When students feel connected to the instructor, they are more likely to remain motivated, engaged, and persist toward completing an online course. Rarely have studies compared connectedness in three modalities: online only, blended, and face-to-face. This study compared perceptions of connectedness among students (N = 27) from an Hispanic Serving Institution with their instructor and peers in a research methods course. The sample of students took the same course in three different sections- each taught in a different modality by the same white instructor. Connectedness and students’ grades were lower for students who took the course fully online. However, student ratings of teachings were highest for those who took the online-only section. Latinx students reported less connectedness in the online-only section than others. The results inform decisions about teaching modalities during the pandemic and in the future; synchronous learning is critical to obtain equitable connectedness among Latinx students.
Metrics
References
Anderson, T., Rourke, L., Garrison, D. R., & Archer, W. (2001). Assessing teaching presence in a computer conferencing context. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 5 (2).
Anggrawan, A., & Jihadil, Q. S. (2018, October). Comparative Analysis of Online E- Learning and Face to Face Learning: An Experimental Study. In 2018 Third International Conference on Informatics and Computing (ICIC) (pp. 1-4). IEEE.
Arbelo, F., Martin, K., & Frigerio, A. (2019). Hispanic students and online learning: Factors of success. HETS Online Journal, 9(2).
Brown, M. G., Wohn, D. Y., & Ellison, N. (2016). Without a map: College access and the online practices of youth from low-income communities. Computers & Education, 92, 104-116.
Caboni, T. C., Mundy, M. E., Duesterhaus, M. B. (2002). The implications of the norms of undergraduate college students for faculty enactment of principles of good practice in undergraduate education. Peabody Journal of Education, 77(3), 125-137.
Chang, B., & Kang, H. (2016). Challenges facing group work online. Distance Education, 37(1), 73-88.
D'Alba, O. A. (2014). A case study of student instructor connectedness in an asynchronous modular online environment (Unpublished doctoral dissertation) Atlanta: Georgia State University.
Elkins, B., & Hanke, E. (2018). Code?switching to navigate social class in higher education and student affairs. New directions for student services, 2018(162), 35-47.
Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2), 87-105. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1096-7516(00)00016-6
Gillett-Swan, J. (2017). The challenges of online learning: Supporting and engaging the isolated learner. Journal of Learning Design, 10(1), 20-30.
Jaggars, S. S., Xu, D. (2016). How do online course design features influence student performance? Computers & Education, 95, 270-284. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.01.014
Joyner, D. A., Wang, Q., Thakare, S., Jing, S., Goel, A., & MacIntyre, B. (2020, August). The Synchronicity Paradox in Online Education. In Proceedings of the Seventh ACM Conference on Learning@ Scale (pp. 15-24).
Lowenthal, P. R. & Snelson, C. (2017) In search of a better understanding of social presence: an investigation into how researchers define social presence, Distance Education, 38:2, 141-159. DOI: 10.1080/01587919.2017.1324727
Martin, F., Wang, C., & Sadaf, A. (2018). Student perception of helpfulness of facilitation strategies that enhance instructor presence, connectedness, engagement and learning in online courses. The Internet and Higher Education, 37, 52-65.
Merc, E. O. (2020). The Role of Social Integration and Sense of Connectedness in Online and Hybrid Courses and Their Influence on Persistence Rates and Academic Performance Among Military Students (Doctoral dissertation, University of Hawai'i at Manoa).
Murphy, M. (2020). Latinos achieving online: an exploration at a Hispanic serving institution (Doctoral dissertation).
Plotts, C. (2018). Latino/a cultural perspectives of social presence: a case study, International Journal of Educational Technology, 5(1), 29-36.
Plotts, C. (2020). The space between: Identifying cultural canyons in online spaces and the use of LatinX culture to bridge the divide. Sandston, VA: DBC Publishing.
Richardson, J.C., Koehler, A.A., Besser, E.D., Caskurlu, S., Lim, J., Mueller, C.M. (2015). Conceptualizing and investigating instructor presence in online learning environments. The International REview of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 16(3). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v16i3.2123
Shelton, B. E., Hung, J. L., & Lowenthal, P. R. (2017). Predicting student success by modeling student interaction in asynchronous online courses. Distance Education, 38(1), 59-69.
Short, J., Williams, E., & Christie, B. (1976). The social psychology of telecommunications. Toronto, ON: Wiley.
Stone, C. (2019). Online learning in Australian higher education: Opportunities, challenges and transformations. Student Success, 10(2), 1.
Swaggerty, E. A., & Broemmel, A. D. (2017). Authenticity, relevance, and connectedness: Graduate students' learning preferences and experiences in an online reading education course. The Internet and Higher Education, 32, 80-86.
Swan, K., & Shih, L. F. (2005). On the nature and development of social presence in online discussions. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 9, 115–136. Retrieved from https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/read/online-learning-journal/
Thai, N. T. T., De Wever, B., & Valcke, M. (2020). Face?to?face, blended, flipped, or online learning environment? Impact on learning performance and student
cognitions. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 36(3), 397-411.
Thweatt, K. S., & McCroskey, J. C. (1998). The impact of teacher immediacy and mis- behavuors on teacher credibility. Communication Education, 47(4), 348-358.
Whiteside, A. L. (2015). Introducing the Social Presence Model to Explore Online and Blended Learning Experiences. Online Learning, 19(2), n2.
Wilson, L. R. (2020). A Phenomenological Exploration of Hispanic Student Persistence in the Online College Environment.
Xu, D., & Xu, Y. (2019). The promises and limits of online higher education: understanding how distance education affects access, cost, and quality. American Enterprise Institute (AEI), 2019. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED596296
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Kristen Faye Linton, Lydia Dixon, Jaime Hannans, Megan Everhardt-Alstot
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Open Access Policy Statement
HETS Online Journal has adopted an open access policy and provides immediate access to its content free of charge to the reader. The journal does not pass on the cost of publication or submission of manuscripts, known as an Article Processing Charge (APC), to authors.
HOJ is licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA.
