Developing a Community Engagement Framework: Assessing Social Capital, Confidence and Resilience in Online Learners

Attending the presentation? Take shared notes in this Google Doc and view the final notes below.

Speakers

Dr. Roxana Toma and Matthew Berge

Brief Description

We are drawing on the work of Redmond et al (2018) and their proposal of an Online Engagement Framework for Higher Education to investigate new methods of course design and instruction that can increase student perceptions of social capital, their confidence and resilience in the learning process. We are also measuring students’ sense of belonging and community in online environments.

Full Abstract

We are drawing on the work of Redmond et al (2018) and their proposal of an Online Engagement Framework for Higher Education to investigate new methods of course design and instruction that can increase student perceptions of social capital and their confidence and resilience in the learning process.

To begin this journey, we are building on the four student engagement themes proposed by Redmond et al: the cognitive, behavioral, collaborative, and emotional capital. In our proposed model, these will serve as constructs, or latent variables that influence students’ social capital (another latent and our dependent variable). In addition, we are taking concepts from the community of inquiry framework, community of practice, epistemic engagement, transformative learning and identity construction, and emotional management theory to propose a new and improved Community Engagement Framework that can more closely identify the elements leading to students’ perceptions of social capital. To do so, we are bringing in a myriad of indicator variables that can potentially measure or influence the latent independent variables from the model as well as our dependent variable – students’ social capital. We also look to measure students’ sense of belonging and community in online learning environments.

At this stage, this research is theoretical in nature, but our intention is utilizing this new model to survey online students to cross-validate our framework with path analysis and structural equation modeling. We also plan to survey online instructors to identify practice-based use of the engagement constructs that we propose. Results from both studies will assist colleges, universities, and course instructors to design and deliver online courses that facilitate increased learner engagement and empower students to build confidence and resilience throughout the online learning process.

Session Objectives

By the end of the session, participants will be well versed in the contemporary literature in distance education and will find themselves intrigued by our proposal to create a new form of online learning (which is classically asynchronous) that is closer to hybrid. Research shows that hybrid learning has better learning outcomes, and we posit that it also leads to better engagement and increased social capital and students’ sense of belonging.

Biography

Roxana Toma (Ph.D., North Carolina State University) is the Chair of the Graduate Liberal Arts and Sciences Division and an Associate Professor and Coordinator of the M.A. in Social and Public Policy in the School for Graduate Studies at SUNY Empire State College. She is also the Chair of the Institutional Review Board at SUNY Empire State College. Dr. Toma has a B.S. in Economics, a Ph.D. in Public Administration and takes an interdisciplinary approach to examine social capital models of attitude and value formation. Her doctoral research on corruption earned her the Graduate School Dissertation Award at North Carolina State University (2009) and she is recipient of the Susan H. Turben Award for Excellence in Scholarship at SUNY Empire State College (2015).

Co-Presenter Bio

Matthew Berge is a SUNY 2021-22 PRODiG Scholar close to completing his MA degree in Social and Public Policy. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from SUNY Empire (2021) with a BA in Social Science and a focus in Government, Health and Society. He is the recipient of the SUNY Empire State Award for Student Excellence (2022), the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence (2022) and the SUNY ACT for Excellence and Student Initiative Scholarship (2022).

Session Notes

Attending the presentation? Take shared notes in this Google Doc and view the final notes below.