Student communities in a distance-learning environment

Abstract

Distance Education (DE) is becoming increasingly important as its rapid growth rates demonstrate. However, recent statistics on DE show low retention rates and a poor return on investment (ROI) in various programs. We need a better understanding of what are the critical success factors for DE environments for all constituencies (students, instructors, and institutions). We still misinterpret the reality of this kind of practice, both from the teacher's and the learner's point of view [1]. In this article, we focus on the collective dimension of the learning environments. In fact, entering a virtual learning community appears as a rational choice for the students to retrieve information more rapidly [3] and examine with available peers the actual content. But, students occasionally express a natural anxiety about sharing their difficulties with strangers, which partially explains the barriers in establishing trusting and caring learning communities [2]. Well-sequenced pedagogical courses and frequent contacts with the professor seem to strengthen the cohesion and integration of the students in a group. Consequently, educational choices and the global architecture of the course, by influencing the formation of these groups, try to compensate --- at least partially --- for the deficiencies of DE. The goal of this paper is to propose solutions to overcome low retention rates and ROI in order to deploy an efficient DE program using the key solution of a web-based course in an American public university.