1 / 20

The Effective Digital Socrates: Developing Trust in Virtual Learning Communities

This research paper explores the importance of trust development in virtual learning communities. It discusses the changes in online faculty roles, faculty perceptions of online community building, and strategies for trust formation. The concept of swift trust is introduced, along with its elements and relevance in global virtual teams. The research findings highlight the significance of early communication, positive social atmosphere, and predictable patterns in communication and action for trust building. This study emphasizes the need for structured contributions, coping with uncertainties, and involvement in meaningful tasks to strengthen trust. The conclusions suggest that swift trust can be formed in virtual learning communities, and effective online teachers play a crucial role in establishing trust from the beginning. Future research is recommended to analyze a broader range of instructors and correlate the findings with semi-structured interviews.

rsawyer
Download Presentation

The Effective Digital Socrates: Developing Trust in Virtual Learning Communities

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The Effective Digital Socrates: Developing Trust in Virtual Learning Communities ALN Orlando November 2001 Nancy W. Coppola S. Roxanne Hiltz Naomi Rotter

  2. Trust Development in Virtual Teams • Online faculty role changes • Faculty perceptions of online community building • Correlation to theories of swift trust with coding scheme • Strategies for trust formation

  3. Online Faculty Role Changes ( Prior ALN presentation) • Authors designed and conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with faculty • Cognitive role: deeper cognitive complexity • Affective role: new tools to express emotion • Managerial role: more detail, structure, and monitoring

  4. Swift Trust – concept developed by Meyerson, Weick, and Kramer (1996) • Swift trust is a concept relating to temporary teams whose existence is formed around a clear purpose and common task with a finite life span. • Its elements include a willingness to suspend doubt about whether others who are "strangers" can be counted on in order to get to work on the group's task...

  5. Swift Trust elements • ...and a positive expectation that the group activity will be beneficial. • It is built and maintained by a high level of activity and responsiveness.

  6. Global Virtual Teams (prior research) • Distinct communication and behaviors • Analysis of behaviors and actions both in early and later stages of group work • Jarvenpaa and Leidner 1998

  7. Research hypotheses • Faculty who become successful virtual professors overcome the coldness in the electronic media with social communication clues in discussion conferences. • The most effective online teachers get a good start in the very first week of online classes • Once established, swift trust remains

  8. Research Methods • Selected most effective teacher using data from student questionnaires • Examined instructor’s online discussion forums or conferences • Analyzed Introduction conference in which instructor and students introduce themselves

  9. Coding the Data • Interaction Process Analysis (Bales, 1950) (modified) • Pattern analysis software (QSR NVIVO)

  10. Swift Trust Coding Scheme • Positive expectations about the course • Negative expectations about the course • Social emotional positive • Social emotional negative • Task area – asks for help • Task area – gives help • Technical/logistical/procedural

  11. Early Communication • Out of 297 coded passages in the Introductions Conference • 35 instances of instructor social emotional positive (32) or negative (3) • 74 instances of student social emotional positive • Most frequent is “hello” or variations

  12. Expectations • Enthusiasm facilitates early trust • Evidence of positive expectations about the course in 34 instructor instances and 89 student instances • “I’m looking forward to getting to know you. I hope I will have interesting discussions about diverse issues in the class.”

  13. Task-Related Communication • Coping with technical and task uncertainty is important • Evident in giving information • 15 instructor passages • 53 student passages • Evident in asking for help • 6 instructor passages • 12 student passages

  14. Later Communication • Later trust formation is shown by predictable communication • Frequency counts show consistent pattern in first weeks and in weeks nine and ten of classes

  15. Strategies for Community Building • Establish early communication • Team members need to perceive the instructor’s presence as soon as they enter the course • Develop a positive social atmosphere • Team members respond to perceived caring in course • Model solidarity, congeniality, and affiliation

  16. Strategies for Community Building • Reinforce predictable patterns in communication and action • Students need carefully structured activities and regular feedback • Involve team members in tasks • Group members need to be involved in meaningful tasks in the first week.

  17. Summary • In order to build swift trust at the beginning of a course, the instructor needs to structure clear contributions for each student to make, help them cope with any technical or task uncertainties, model and encourage response to each others' contributions. • Early encouragement of social communications (and explicit statements of commitment, excitement and optimism) also strengthen trust.

  18. Conclusions • Swift trust does form in virtual learning communities • Faculty overcome coldness in electronic medium with social communication • Effective online teachers get a good start in first week • Once established, swift trust carries over if high levels of action are maintained

  19. Future Research • Analysis needs to go beyond one instructor • Findings need to be correlated with semi-structured interview • Compare findings with an analysis of instructors not highly rated

  20. For more details: N. Coppola, S. R. Hiltz, and N. Rotter. "Building Trust in Virtual Teams." Proceedings of IEEE Professional Communication Society 2001 International Professional Communication Conference. Santa Fe, New Mexico, (October 2001).

More Related