Taking the plunge, juggling acts, and friendly fire

Abstract

Students embarking on higher education confront many challenges. Particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic, universities have become increasingly concerned to address these challenges and to develop comprehensive strategies to nurture student wellbeing. Distance learning courses create additional pressures, however, and not only because online students tend to be older than typical undergraduate student cohorts and therefore present with an array of social and caring responsibilities at the point of enrolment. The present study’s objectives were to explore how distance learning students describe their experiences of online learning, with a particular focus on their engagement with their course, their lifestyle and wellbeing challenges, and their interactions with staff and fellow students. Developing Shinebourne and Smith’s (2010) innovative phenomenology coupled with experiential metaphor methodology, we employed a two-stage data collection methodology based on participant diaries and follow-up interviews. In Stage 1, diaries captured student experiences in real time. Diary entry data subsequently informed the schedules of the semi-structured interviews that followed in Stage 2. Metaphorical analysis provided insight into online students’ lifeworlds, in terms of the practical challenges of balancing roles with time pressures, the existential struggle of forging a new identity, and the search for meaningful interpersonal connections. Six inter-related metaphors were unearthed: ‘Plunging into the Deep’; ‘Impostor Syndrome’; ‘A Precariously Balanced Juggling Act’; ‘The Gift of Time’; ‘Hostile Territories and Friendly Fire’; and ‘House of Cards’. Confirming and extending previous work, our findings demonstrate that online distance learning is a journey of self-doubt and discovery interrupted by both traumatic and transformative moments as students strive to succeed against multiple existential threats. We recommend that universities devote resources to facilitating an understanding of online students’ unique circumstances to provide them with informed and effective wellbeing support at the start of and throughout their journeys.