Electronic Classroom, Electronic Community - Information Communication Technologies for Human Services Education and Delivery - page 89

investments in eLearning to generate the new rev-
enue streams forecast in the late 1990s, (Zemsky
and Massy 2004; Reynoldson and Vibert 2005).
This has required them to focus on developing
sustainable eLearning policies that try to recon-
cile the demands of professional development for
staff with increasing student demands for courses
that are flexibly delivered (Minshull 2004). This
chapter reports on research into the significance of
community for students studying online and what
role the constructed online environment can play
in the development of community for students.
This is particularly relevant for social work and
human service students studying online because
much of their education is predicated on the de-
velopment of good interpersonal communication
skills. The use of poorly designed online learning
environments for the delivery of social work and
human services study programs may well hinder
the development of these interpersonal commu-
nication skills.
This research is significant because it provides
a new way of thinking about “community” for
students by showing the importance of com-
munity and how it works in both on-campus and
online learning environments. But more impor-
tantly, it provides a new way of thinking about
community that shifts our understanding away
from a nebulous, ill-defined idea - to a practical,
student-centred idea of community defined as
Social Learning Support Networks (SLSN). The
research findings indicate that the constructed
online environment can facilitate the development
of SLSN's for courses delivered fully online if
it provides students with what Burbules (2000)
calls, a place to inhabit. While the evidence for
this second finding came from students who were
effectively distance learners, it is likely that the
elements of the online environment that supported
their development of SLSN's are also relevant
for the online environment we provide for on-
campus students. In this chapter I draw together
the common themes from three case studies and
detail the significance of this research for future

developments of eLearning in higher education
by providing five significant challenges to the
current design of Course Management Systems
(CMS).

tHe tHree caSe StuDieS

This research used a multiple-case study approach
to explore three different online environments.
The first case used a rudimentary web page with
email communication and discussion boards.
The second, a purpose built Virtual Social Space
operating within a Course Management System
(WebCT). The third, a text based virtual campus
operating in a MOO environment (Multi user
dimensions-Object-Oriented).
The first case study took a group of under-
graduate social science students who were study-
ing a single course online as part of a three-year
on-campus program offered by the School of
Social Science and Planning, RMIT University
Melbourne, Australia. The online environment in
which these students were studying was primitive
using only a web page and email, and provided
little or no opportunity for the participating stu-
dents to develop a sense of connection with each
other. Students' interactions were teacher driven
and focused on course content and assessment
activities. The students interviewed in this case
were asked to explore their experiences of devel-
oping connections with other students both on
campus and in the online learning environment
they were studying in.
The second case study was a Masters in
Information Technology Management program
offered from Sheffield University, England. The
academics responsible for this program decided
to develop a Virtual Social Space (VSS) to act as
an umbrella social space running across courses
and throughout the program. The VSS provided
discussion boards for social interaction, an area for
student profiles and program information. Students
in this program already displayed a high level