Distance Learners’ Experiences of Silence Online: A Phenomenological Inquiry

Leslie Duran

doi:10.19173/irrodl.v20i5.4538

Abstract

Although learner silence in face-to-face classrooms has been the topic of considerable research interest, relatively little investigation has been done into learners’ experience of silence in distance education. Guided by a phenomenology of practice approach, this study explores the lived experiences of online silence, using interview data gathered from 12 graduate students who were engaged in cohort-based distance learning. Iterative rounds of a whole-part-whole interpretive process were used to identify key themes that emerged regarding the participants’ lived experiences. The findings highlight that silence is a complex, multifaceted phenomenon that was both enacted and received by the participants. Speaking out online was done carefully, sometimes with partial voice and sometimes in fuller voice, sometimes as an obligation and other times with a sense of spontaneity and connection. The six themes that emerged were as follows: (a) learners enact purposeful silence; (b) learners absorb silence from others; (c) learners perceive, and use, silence as demarcation; (d) learners experience silence within voice; (e) learners use deliberate, complex strategies while engaging in online discourse; and (f) learners hear each other in a trusted community. These six themes give new understandings to the experience of online silence. They reflect the multifaceted and nuanced aspects of the phenomenon and have implications for distance education instructors, learners, and curriculum developers.

Highlights

I expect to meet some people here
The six emergent themes described in this study reinforce that silence online is a complex and polymorphous entity
Online learners may be silent, but they use silence, they break through silence, and having broken through it, they may meet it again in the online discussion forums

Summary

Introduction

I expect to meet some people here. Social constructivist approaches to learning assert that interaction is a fundamental requirement for the development of community, the creation of meaning, and the promotion of learning (Bates, 2015; Conrad, 2014). In many distance education courses, the majority of interaction occurs in asynchronous, text-based discussion forums. Instructors and students post messages and respond to other people’s postings, resulting in a threaded discussion. In these threaded discussions, if an instructor or learner does not post or is delayed in responding to another’s post, the absence of communication comes across as silence (Xin & Feenberg, 2006)

Methods

Results

Conclusion