Connecting Adult Learners through an Online Community: Challenges and Barriers

Abstract

While online communities of various natures proliferate in cyber space, our understanding of the reasons underlying their success or failure is quite limited. Current study aims to contribute to this area through exploring motivating or inhibiting factors that influence adult learners’ participation in an online community. The virtual community under study was intentionally formed upon an existing physical community. Initiated by the Faculty, an online community was created to sustain and reinforce community of part-time doctoral students. Our study intends to explore into two questions: what are the critical factors determining members’ participation in the online community when it was built upon their existing physical group? What are the challenges or issues confronted by externally initiated communities? As matter of fact, there is a myriad of factors that might motivate or impede people’s participation in virtual community. Our research focuses on members’ need for and perception of online community which are considered as most crucial contributing factors of their participation. At the same time, we took into account users’ comfort level with and experience of using computer-mediated communication. Interview was used as the major instrument for data collection. Our study results will not only shed light on people’s perception and behavior in virtual realm, but also inform the design efforts to create nurturing environment for virtual communities.