| Many colleges and universities are using technology to offer courses and degree programs to meet the ever changing needs of learners and employers. The Director of the Information Centre of the International Association of Universities has indicated: New information technologies...are changing the learning and research process, how we search, discover, teach and learn...Universities must face up to this challenge. (Langlois, 1997, p. 7 in Collis, 1998, p. 373) A virtual learning community administered through an Asynchronous Learning Network (ALN) is one educational model being applied by institutions of higher education to connect and prepare today's learner.; The role of the faculty member in facilitating the development and maintenance of community as well as the social construction of knowledge is crucial in the virtual classroom. Research by Russell (1999) indicates that in comparing "various media for delivering instruction at a distance, the medium is rarely the determining factor in learning effectiveness...it is course design and pedagogy that matter the most" (Rovai, 2000, p. 287). The theoretical basis for this study is the tenets of John Dewey and Lev Semenovich Vygotsky.; The main purpose of this study was to qualitatively investigate the role, experiences, and perceptions of faculty and students in the development of community and the social construction of knowledge that occurs in the virtual classroom. Semistructured interviews were conducted in two stages with two professors, one teaching assistant and nine students from two sections of Adult Education 470 at a state-related research university's Online Campus. The first stage was an orienting interview and delved into the emergence of community. The second stage was a discussion of collected cultural artifacts by students and further investigation with all participants into the social construction of knowledge.; The interviews explored the sense of connection amongst community members, collaborative learning influences, culture and symbols, faculty delivery mode, social and deliberate nature of computer-mediated communication, and the social construction of knowledge. This approach uncovered emerging themes, provided the foundation for a new model of the dynamics in a virtual learning community with sharing of personal narratives at the core of socio-emotional-driven interactions fostered via teacher confirmation, and established case studies on faculty and student perceptions of their experience in a virtual learning community. |
