Disengagement from intrinsically transient social worlds: The case of a distance learning community

An examination of members' departure from online communities and groups is a needed addition to the research of virtual communities. Types of online communities designed to come to a conclusion, like virtual work teams and distance learning programs, are examples of intrinsically transient social worlds. Activities that people undertake while disengaging from transient online groups affect them personally, as well as their future personal and professional relationships with one another. A key question is what processes, experiences, and emotions do members of such communities undergo as they disengage from transient social worlds, and what impact does disengagement have on their future interactions? Understanding disengagement will help designers, managers, and participants of virtual community reduce the difficulties of departure and facilitate future relationships among former members.; LEEP, the distance education program at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, provides an example of a transient online social world. Using data gathered through semi-structured interviews, this study examines disengagement. Thirty students near the time of graduating from LEEP participated in interviews exploring their activities and emotions related to disengagement. Twenty-five of them participated in two interviews, providing data about changes that occurred during this transition. The other five participated in one interview near graduation. Results were used to describe the process graduate students enact as they prepare to graduate from a distance education degree program.; The disengagement process includes twelve dimensions. The twelve dimensions discussed throughout this dissertation are: experiencing intrinsic transience; entrainment with a cohort; managing time; shifting focus; pursuing goals; adapting role and identity; moving support; changing footing of relationships; joining logical next worlds; taking leave and graduating; disengaging from the cohort; and closing membership.; The first two dimensions affect participants' activities throughout membership in a transient social world. The next ten dimensions represent activities that participants undertake as they disengage from an intrinsically transient social world. Taken together, these twelve dimensions model the process of disengaging from an intrinsically transient social world.