In a case study involving three asynchronous online professional writing courses, this research investigates students' abilities to establish a social presence and build team cohesion via collaborative, team-based writing projects. Using the Community of Inquiry (COI) framework, this study is situated in the understanding that teaching and…

Motivation, belonging, and inclusion are all critical factors for student success but can be difficult to support in asynchronous online courses. Active learning and required group work have been shown to increase student motivation in in-person and synchronous online courses, but little is known about their impact in online asynchronous settings.…

This paper presents a study of group cohesion as it arises in online small group different time and place collaboration. Cohesion is modeled in terms of the extent to which a group makes progress together through contentful and meaningful collaborative interactions. This paper makes the case that cohesion in a small group working collaboratively…

This research study examines the dynamics of student-to-student interpersonal mediated communication motives within asynchronous discussion forums. The objective is to determine the interpersonal mediated communication motives and communicator style of students enrolled in fully asynchronous community college courses with the intention to…

Though class participation and group cohesion have shown some potential to promote student performance in conventional classrooms, their efficacy has not yet been demonstrated in an online-class setting. Group cohesion, defined as member attraction to and self-identification with a group, is thought to promote positive interdependence and the…

: This paper reports the findings of a scoping review of the construct social presence. The methodology follows the design for scoping reviews as advocated by Arksey and O'Malley (2005). A scoping study is desirable because by synthesizing the research literature the opportunity to identify practical guidelines for the development of social…

Social presence is difficult to achieve, but an imperative component of online learning. In this study, we investigated the effect of group size on students' perceptions of social presence in two graduate-level online courses, comparing small group versus whole class discussions. Our results indicated that when in small group discussions, students…

As colleges and universities increase their online course offerings, student social experiences in online learning environments require further examination, specifically for nonresidential students who may already be less integrated into college social networks. A social capital framework was used to guide this qualitative study of 17…

The study buddy is a learning strategy employed in a graduate distance course to promote informal peer reviewing of assignments before submission. This strategy promotes student-student interaction and helps break the social isolation of distance learning. Given the concern by Arum and Roksa (2011) that student-student interaction may be…