Social Relationships: Learner Perceptions of Interactions in Distance Learning

Introduction

The nature and quality of the interactions between instructors and learners, or among learners themselves, is a poorly understood dimension that influences the use of distance learning technology. Combs, Avila, and Purkey (1971), Weinstein and Fantini (1970), and more recently Chickering and Gamson (1987) and Chickering and Reisser (1993) stress the importance of developing social relationships in the classroom. Not all of these researchers explicitly discuss social relationships, but all examine the effects of building trust and understanding, as well as a cooperative and psychologically safe environment, with learners. The ideal environment is described as a learning community in which new ideas might be developed and procedures for problem solving could be learned. Although a distance education learning environment is inherently different from the traditional classroom, its advocates feel that supportive social relationships can be fostered through distance learning technology.

In addition to individual course development projects, a goal of the Innovations in Distance Education (IDE) project at the Pennsylvania State University was to identify and develop principles and practices that would serve as a template for all faculty involved in distance education. All IDE project faculty were a part of a process to identify a sequence of guiding principles and practices, which culminated in a published report of the IDE project, An Emerging Set of Guiding Principles and Practices for the Design and Development of Distance Education (Innovations in Distance Education, 1998). Participating in the production of the “Interaction” section of the report was especially helpful to the course project discussed herein, which is an analysis of socialization in Criminal Justice courses taught simultaneously at two locations using interactive compressed video.

Related Research

The literature suggests that not all faculty members have an interest in developing interactions in their classes. Cyrs and Smith (1990) studied 40 college faculty instructors and found that they spent less than 4% of available class time interacting with learners. Ostendorf (1994, p. 53), in an informal study of 12 distance education courses at New Mexico State University, found that instructors devoted only 2.85 minutes out of every 50 minutes of class time to interaction. In both studies, the faculty instructors used interactive compressed videoconferencing, a system that allows real-time interaction.

Most of the available research related to interaction in the delivery of distance learning is related to “transactional distance,” a concept discussed by Moore (1980, 1991), where the premise is that unique patterns of communication are inherent to distance learning. Moore describes transactional distance as the learners’ perception of psychological and communication space between themselves and instructor; the perception of closeness is affected by a relationship between dialogue, structure, and learner autonomy: “Dialogue describes the interaction between teacher and learner when one gives instruction and the other responds” (Moore, 1991, p. 3). Moore continues, “[The] structure expresses the rigidity or flexibility of the program’s educational objective” (p. 4). The concept of structure also can relate to institutional policies and constraints (Mueller, 1997). In distance learning, communication patterns differ from those in traditional classrooms and the perception of distance varies greatly among learners.

Several researchers have investigated the dimensions that interplay during distance learning. Saba and Shearer (1994) developed a systematic diagram illustrating the relationship between structure and dialogue in transactional distance. Hodes (1998) synthesized a useful model demonstrating how learner characteristics (e.g., learner autonomy) determine optimal levels of structure and dialogue. Bunker, Gayol, Nti, and Reidell (1996) designed a study to examine four levels of structure in audioconferencing classes. They found that two main factors impact the amount of interaction: the level of the questions (structure) and the amount of time allowed for learners to answer. Studying transactional distance and interactive television in distance education, Bischoff, Bisconer, Kooker, and Woods (1996) reported that learners who have prior experience with technology sensed a closer transactional distance than learners with less experience. In this study, Bischoff et al. also concluded that there may be no difference between distance education and traditional (face-to-face) settings. Mueller (1997) stated that the tenets of transactional distance theory also apply...