Othering in Online Learning

There is a tension visible in online learning; whilst social presence and community is seen as key for students' experience and learning in online courses, many drop out of before completing their studies. Phirangee and Malec (2017) have through a qualitative multiple case study design, where six participants were interviewed, found three categories of 'othering' that could shine a light on the reasons to the dropout rates; professional, academic and ethnic. Professional othering is defined as occurring when work and academic commitments do not align. Under this category a learner describes feeling othered when her instructor could not support this alignment, and as a consequence also struggled to build a positive relationship with them and the course. Academic othering relates to the approach to the academic aspect of the course, and differing ones causing a feeling of othering in the learners. For example, a learner illustrates this by expressing discontent with fellow students engaging on a too superficial level with the content and group discussions. Ethnic othering is when the ethnicity of a person creates a difference with other learners. One of the learners expressed that her English levels created high barriers for her participation, as she was not a native speaker. The article concludes that whilst the students in this study did not drop out as a result of their othering, these categories can be helpful insight for online learning environments in general as well as blended learning environments and knowing what causes disconnection amongst learners.

Reference: Phirangee, K., & Malec, A. (2017). Othering in online learning: An examination of social presence, identity, and sense of community. Distance Education, 38(2), 160-172. doi:10.1080/01587919.2017.1322457

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