Digital remediation: social support and online learning communities can help offset rural digital inequality

ABSTRACT

While all students enter college with varying levels of digital skills, those from rural areas may face extra challenges because their own skills and those of their pre-college networks may be underdeveloped. Without some type of intervention, digital deficits can perpetuate further educational disadvantages. We developed an online learning community (OLC) in two sections of an introductory college course and integrated collaborative learning into students’ weekly activities. Regression analysis of survey data (N = 373) shows three impacts: access to social support is associated with higher skill assessment and improvements in digital skills; rural status is associated with a clear and significant disadvantage in digital skill assessment; and that involvement in an OLC contributed substantially to improvements in digital skills. We conclude with limitations and considerations for future research.

KEYWORDS:

• Community
• skills
• inequality
• self-efficacy
• digital inequality
• rurality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Howard T. Welser http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6715-1335

Notes

1 RUCA version 2.0 is based on 2000 Census commuting data and 2004 ZIP codes. These codes include: (a) 2000 Census work commuting information, and (b) Census Bureau defined Urbanized Areas (cities of 50,000 and greater population) and Urban Clusters (cities/towns of from 2,500 through 49,999 populations). The RUCA scores measure ‘functional isolation,’ but not ‘objective remoteness.’