Online instruction for a humanized learning experience: Techniques used by college instructors

Abstract

The online learning literature converges to suggest that a “humanized” learning experience is critical to student engagement, where student agency, instructor presence, and peer presence have been nominated across a number of studies as key elements of a humanized online learning experience. Despite theoretical support, description of specific implementation techniques used by instructors to enhance these elements is limited. Based on an extensive review of the literature, this study developed a coding scheme of humanization practices and conducted content analysis of 244 excerpts of teaching practices from 17 online courses that demonstrated high levels of humanized instruction out of 100 randomly selected online courses at a large community college. The results reveal eight techniques that instructors used to humanize their online courses. These techniques indicate that to offer students a humanized learning experience, it is critical for instructors to make consistent and regular efforts throughout the course, promote social and academic presence in an integrated way, and proactively guide student social-emotional communication. These techniques, along with the concrete examples, lay a groundwork for future research about the relationship between humanization techniques and student outcomes in virtual environments and provide actionable guidance on how to humanize an online course.