Electronic Classroom, Electronic Community - Information Communication Technologies for Human Services Education and Delivery - page 88

Chapter 6
Electronic Classroom,
Electronic Community
Designing eLearning Environments
to foster Virtual Social Networks
and Student Learning

Lisa Harris
RMIT University, Australia

abStract

The capacity for online learning environments to provide good quality learning experiences for students
has been the focus of speculation and debate in the higher education sector from the late 1990s to the
present day. In this area, “quality” has become synonymous with engaging students in a learning com-
munity. This chapter reports on a qualitative research project designed to explore the significance of
community for students studying online. Using three fundamentally different types of online learning
environments as case studies, this research explored the relationship between the constructed online
learning environment and the development of learning communities or what the author has termed so-
cial learning support networks (SLSN). Exploring the common themes to emerge from these three case
studies, this research provides new evidence of the benefit of community for students studying online
and argues that future online learning environments should be shaped by five key principles designed
to foster a sense of social connection between students.

'I pay the schoolmaster, but 'tis the schoolboys
that educate my son'. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1803-1882)

data (Coates 2006) and working through the effec-
tive use of online learning environments. Creating
learning communities or a sense of belonging for
students has emerged in the Australian higher edu-
cation literature as a key goal for those interested
in improving the student experience (Coates 2005;
McInnis et al 2000).At the same time, many univer-
sities are coming to terms with the failure of their

introDuction

Many Australian universities grapple with both
interpreting and responding to student engagement