Abstract
In an important way, this study investigates various aspects of community development and social support among participants in computer technology-enhanced distance education programs. The current analysis focuses on the characteristics that define communities and how students build and maintain them. Drawing on a series of interviews with 17 students, the study highlights the importance of community and its contribution to supporting them. This process is very important in developing a sense of community among students. Students derive satisfaction from the temporal intimacy of live lectures and the associated whisper facility for socializing in Web Relay Chat. They also exploited the near-simultaneous use of email and the timing of assignment submissions to subtly initiate email exchanges among themselves, as observed in the study. Overall, the interviews conducted in the study indicated that a strong sense of community benefits both individuals and programs, supporting educators' efforts to create such communities for online learners.
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