Community and collaborative learning in online schools: Students’ and teachers’ perspectives

Online schools are a significant part of the education marketplace, but some argue that online learning can impact students’ perceptions of belonging, trust and connectedness. From the perspective of sociocultural learning theory this is an important issue because models of social learning rely on students being comfortable and able to share knowledge and perspectives. Connectedness and trust are likely to facilitate students’ willingness to share ideas, which positively contribute to their learning. We were interested in exploring students’ and teachers’ broad perceptions of collaborative learning in online classes, and the role of learning community membership on the knowledge sharing process. To do this, we interviewed 14 students and six teachers from five online secondary level schools across a variety of national contexts. Our analysis suggests that a culture of participation is important for productive collaborative learning. We also suggest that this culture involves a complex balance between social accountability to the wider group of students and the individual agency that online communication tools afford the student.