Reducing distance in online learning: A study of student characteristics and student immediacy in the community college environment.

摘要

Immediacy defines the psychological distance experienced between two parties regardless of their physical location. Instructional design can be used to develop strategies to increase opportunities for student interaction, the lynchpin to increasing immediacy. The study examined whether the student characteristics of age, gender, learning style, online communication competency, and online social presence affected student immediacy behaviors in the community college online learning environment. 2,522 discussion postings resulting from discussions of 152 urban online community college students were content-analyzed and the students were asked to respond to questions concerning learning style, online communication competency, and social presence. Factor analysis, chi-square, analysis of variance (ANOVA), multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), multivariate regression models, and bivariate correlation tests were used to answer the research questions. The student characteristics of age, gender, learning style, and online communication competency did not significantly affect student immediacy behavior. Effective Language as a social presence dimension underscores the importance of clear and meaningful language use within the online course room and was the only characteristic that was significantly related to affective immediacy behavior exhibited. Students' belief that online communication was an uncomplicated, pleasant, stimulating, and meaningful way to communicate affected the level of affective or nonverbal immediacy behaviors. The interaction effects of student age and gender significantly affected affective immediacy behaviors exhibited by online community college students as well as the Effective Language and Communication Comfort social presence dimensions exhibited by online community college students. Reducing the psychological distance felt between online students is rooted in the ability of those students getting to know their online classmates through meaningful and authentic interaction. The importance of the quality and quantity of student interactions in the community college online course room underscores the need for instructional design techniques that increase each type of student immediacy with the aim of increasing learning and achievement.