<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>This paper examines the learning experiences using student reflections. Data collection was carried out by prompting undergraduate students to reflect on their worst and best experiences, accomplishments, and what they learned through online collaborative activities. The theoretical framework used to explore these experiences was the Community of Inquiry model, which claims the optimal learning experience is at the intersection of three presences (Garrison, Anderson, and Archer, 2000). How can we use these student perceptions of their experiences to create optimal learning experiences in an online environment? Specific teacher characteristics, sense of community, learner effort, sense of improvement and progress, student expectations of online classes, and the impact of feelings and emotion on other presences are some of the themes that surfaced through content qualitative analysis in this study. Students also responded to a validated survey (explicitly prompting the CoI presences) which revealed the impact of lack of student interest in course topics. These themes are valuable because they reveal significant components of students’ learning experiences which can be used to recreate optimal experiences in other settings. This paper builds on the theoretical framework by adding the student perspective and offering a codebook for qualitative content analysis of reflections.</p></abstract>

This paper examines the learning experiences using student reflections. Data collection was carried out by prompting undergraduate students to reflect on their worst and best experiences, accomplishments, and what they learned through online collaborative activities. The theoretical framework used to explore these experiences was the Community of Inquiry model, which claims the optimal learning experience is at the intersection of three presences (Garrison, Anderson, and Archer, 2000). How can we use these student perceptions of their experiences to create optimal learning experiences in an online environment? Specific teacher characteristics, sense of community, learner effort, sense of improvement and progress, student expectations of online classes, and the impact of feelings and emotion on other presences are some of the themes that surfaced through content qualitative analysis in this study. Students also responded to a validated survey (explicitly prompting the CoI presences) which revealed the impact of lack of student interest in course topics. These themes are valuable because they reveal significant components of students’ learning experiences which can be used to recreate optimal experiences in other settings. This paper builds on the theoretical framework by adding the student perspective and offering a codebook for qualitative content analysis of reflections.

How to create meaningful learning experiences in an online environment: components from coding student reflections

Research on Education and Media

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

This paper examines the learning experiences using student reflections. Data collection was carried out by prompting undergraduate students to reflect on their...

How to create meaningful learning experiences in an online environment: components from coding student reflections

Published Online: Dec 26, 2019

Page range: 50 - 62

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/rem-2019-0008

Keywords
Optimal learning experiences, Student reflection, Community of Inquiry, Qualitative content analysis

© 2019 Fatemeh H. Mardi, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

How to create meaningful learning experiences in an online environment: components from coding student reflections

Published Online: Dec 26, 2019

Page range: 50 - 62

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/rem-2019-0008

KeywordsOptimal learning experiences, Student reflection, Community of Inquiry, Qualitative content analysis

© 2019 Fatemeh H. Mardi, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
Optimal learning experiences, Student reflection, Community of Inquiry, Qualitative content analysis