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dence of 'students commenting on the confidence
given them by the environment and how this has
helped them as learners' (Kirriemuir, 2007, p. 22).
However, there is no evidence of any universities
choosing to move from their Course Management
Systems fully into SecondLife. This is not unrea-
sonable given that the high-level computer graph-
ics and bandwidth requirements for SecondLife
will continue to pose a barrier for many universities
outside of the U.S., both for content development
and student access. While academic staff can learn
the SecondLife programming language and create
the learning environments relevant to their course,
this requires a significant commitment on the part
of the academic and is likely to remain another
barrier to the broad adoption of this environment
without significant institutional support.
In a sense this is the “tough” question for
universities. Build their own integrated online
environment including administrative function,
learning spaces (both virtual-immersive and CMS
like), library resources and social environments
- providing them with clear risk management of
issues such as copyright and branding. Or choose
a third-party environment, not just a third-party
application such as BlackBoard run on their own
servers, but a whole environment - which will
inextricably link their online presence with the
branding of the third-party provider and provide
all the future-proofing issues universities have
face when deciding to move from one CMS to
another. While the findings from this research do
not provide any clear direction on this question,
the five design principles outlined will play an
important part in the success of any future online
learning environment's capacity to foster a sense
of social connection for students.
environment to support students in their studies
will continue to be a dominant factor in university
life - including for social work and human ser-
vices students. While the last decade has seen the
almost universal adoption of Course Management
Systems by universities, the decades to come are
likely to see new developments in online learn-
ing environments that will attempt to integrate
the student's zeal for products like Facebook,
with the richness of virtual environments such
as SecondLife, while still proving the security
and risk management associated with CMS. The
findings from this research will contribute to this
new environment.
This qualitative research project used three
case studies to explore tertiary students' thoughts
and expectations about community in the online
environment. Evidence from the first case study
suggested there was a need to explore the rela-
tionship between the constructed online learning
environment and the development of learning com-
munities or what I have termed Social Learning
Support Networks. To explore this issue further,
the project was expanded and subsequent cases
were chosen that included fundamentally different
types of online learning environments.
This research had two significant results. First-
ly, students not only confirmed popular educational
theories on the value of learning communities,
but also described how this form of social con-
nection might practically benefit their learning.
Secondly, this research found that certain forms
of synchronous online environments provided
enhanced opportunities for students to form social
connections that supported their learning.
These results have provided new evidence of
the benefit of social connection, or what many
term “community”, for students studying online
and have been translated into five key design
principles. I have argued that future online learn-
ing environments should be shaped by these five
key design principles to foster a greater sense of
social connection between students and to aid
in the development of Social Learning Support
concluSion
While there is still significant debate about the
quality of online learning in universities, it is
clear that eLearning and the use of the online
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