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Abstract
<p class="3">This study explored how course instructional format (i.e., online, face-to-face, or hybrid) is related to the frequency and duration of out-of-class communication (OCC) between college instructors and students, to student motives for communicating with teachers, and to perceived teacher approachability for conversation outside of class. Though differences in frequency of and student motives for engaging in OCC were not significant, students enrolled in face-to-face courses reported significantly more ongoing/durative OCC with their instructors compared to students enrolled other course types (i.e., online or hybrid). Students in fully online courses reported instructors to seem less receptive to but also less discouraging of OCC than students in face-to-face or hybrid courses. Overall, this study offers a sense of how students who seek informal interaction with instructors beyond the classroom are faring amid the increased reliance on web-based learning environments in higher education.</p>
Highlights
Student perceptions in classrooms influence their propensity to seek out interaction with teachers beyond formal course settings, interaction that is often referred to as out-of-class communication (OCC)
Given the previous research that shows the influence of perceived teacher communication behaviour— variables such as immediacy (Jaasma & Koper, 1999) or accessibility (Bippus et al, 2001)—this study examined the ways in which classroom format correlates with student perceptions of teacher approachability
Course format did not seem to influence the frequency of OCC, but it did relate to the durative nature of OCC, with face-to-face designs promoting the most ongoing OCC
Summary
Student perceptions in classrooms influence their propensity to seek out interaction with teachers beyond formal course settings, interaction that is often referred to as out-of-class communication (OCC). A similar line of research on extra-class-communication (ECC) (e.g., Bippus, Kearney, Plax, & Brooks, 2003) shows how productive informal contact outside of the formal classroom can be for students’ learning experiences. The research on OCC to date, like that on ECC, has focused primarily on the traditional instructional format (i.e., face-to-face learning), but many campuses have expanded distance education efforts to include increased offerings of online or hybrid courses. With limited to no in-person communication in some types of courses, especially those formally online and involving distributed learners, teachers may have fewer (or different) strategies to connect with their students (e.g., teleconferencing, social media) compared to strategies that seem to work for on-campus instructional experiences. This study contributes to the growing conversation about communication in increasingly online learning environments or across classroom formats
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