Journal of Scholastic Inquiry: Special Edition
Volume 10, Page 74
Knowledge of who was enrolled in the course. From a basic perspective, this was an important finding. Students need to know who is in the course to begin to make connections with others. Comments were made with respect to benefits of community groups on a foundational level of how groups created an awareness of peers enrolled in the course. For example, Student 2 said, “…at times, you feel like online it’s just you and the teacher, but … you see there are actually multiple others that you know or have seen around, so it’s pretty neat and helps with being connected...” Additionally, Student 18 emphasized, “Most of the online classes I have taken before this one, I did not know who all was taking the class with me, so I felt completely isolated.” Both comments indicate a need that was satisfied through the groups. An identified role in the course. Perhaps another finding that was more emergent in nature was the notion of having a clear role, a place, in the classroom community. Student 1 noted this on two separate occasions in the data. With respect for recommendations for continued use, the student reported, “…it serves your intended purpose of giving students the sense of community like a real classroom does.” Additionally, when asked for suggestions for improvement on the use of the groups within the course, the student stated, “It’s always hard to decide whose discussion board post to comment on and with the community groups, I knew exactly whose post I was commenting on.” Both comments reflect a sense of purpose and the role they played within the group. Content assistance and feedback. The most noted benefit of the community group pertained to academic support. Students repeatedly referred to obtaining feedback, guidance, and clarification of coursework within their community groups, even among students who didn’t engage to a great extent with their group members. Some examples of commentary from the data are: Student 13, “We communicated when we were unsure of specifics for assignments (for clarification purposes when needed),” Student 17, “I feel that my community group was able to help and guide me through concepts through this class by being there to help explain a(n) assignment. Also, they were there to help sharing examples of the assessments we would have to make,” and Student 10, “I would recommend continuing to use community groups in the future
