Community and connectedness in online higher education: a scoping review of the literature

ABSTRACT

Community and connectedness are important concepts in online higher education. However, researchers debate how they are defined, operationalized, or enacted in practice. A scoping study was conducted to review the research literature on the extent, range, and nature of research in community and connectedness in online higher education. A total of 66 studies published from 2001 through 2018 were identified for review. The findings illustrate how research on community and connectedness has focused on areas such as course design, technology tools, faculty, and students as well as highlight the important role these concepts have played in the last two decades in online higher education. The gaps in the literature suggest a need to further investigate the role community and connectedness play in different types of programs and other roles that faculty, staff, and students could play to foster these concepts.

KEYWORDS:

• community
• connectedness
• isolation
• online learning
• higher education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was declared by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jesús Trespalacios

Jesús Trespalacios is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Technology at Boise State University. He teaches online graduate courses on instructional design and educational research. His scholarly activity includes instructional design education, communities in online environments and doctoral advising.

Chareen Snelson

Patrick R. Lowenthal is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Technology, Boise State University. He specializes in designing and developing online learning environments. His research focuses on how people communicate using emerging technologies—with a specific focus on issues of presence, identity, and community—in online learning environments.

Patrick R. Lowenthal

Chareen Snelson is an associate professor and associate department chair in the Department of Educational Technology at Boise State University. Her scholarly activity emphasizes scoping reviews in educational technology, using video in online education, and teaching qualitative research methods courses online.

Lida Uribe-Flórez

Lida Uribe-Flórez is an associate professor and the chair of the Department of Educational Technology at Boise State University. Her research interest includes online education (eMentoring, advising, and sense of community), teacher education (including teacher candidates and in-service teachers), and the use of tools to support learning in mathematics classrooms.

Ross Perkins

Ross Perkins is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Technology at Boise State University. His primary areas of interest and research have to do with instructional design decision-making and the diffusion of innovation as it relates to educational technology.