Toward Understanding the Culture of Internet-Mediated Learning

Abstract

Peterson's college guide reported in 1997 that 762 educational institutions were offering courses via the internet, more than a 700 percent increase since 1994. In spite of this trend, little research on the learning culture of these internet-mediated courses exists. This paper reports on an ethnographic study of the CU Online program at the University of Colorado at Denver and explores five themes that emerge for the research agenda for the online learning culture: the importance of human interaction, the student work ethic, personal characteristics, the thoughtfulness of student comments in an asynchronous environment, and the instructor's critical role as moderator of the learning process. The primary agenda items are intended to help instructors make the difficult choice of whether to use asynchronous or real-time communication in their course designs and to explore ways to support healthy group dynamics in the electronic frontier.¹