CHMLS Education Talk, Come watch with me: Blending the synchronous with the asynchronous to enhance students’ learning and sense of community

When learning rapidly moved online during the Covid-19 pandemic, conversations with students made it clear that they were missing the sense of community and the “University Experience” they had been expecting. Indeed there is general agreement that a sense of community is critical to students’ academic motivation and success, as well as their wellbeing (Osterman 2000; Cook-Sather, 2017; Bowskill et al., 2022). This presents a key challenge in higher education: To create a flexible and inclusive learning experience that also encourages student engagement and sense of belonging in an increasingly digital landscape. In this session I will outline a new and successful teaching approach (the “watch party”) that supports students’ learning and their sense of community both online and-in person. I will report the results of two controlled experiments (~250 participants), co-created with final-year undergraduate students, which systematically varied teaching modality (in-person or online), pace (asynchronous, synchronous, or “watch party”), and opportunities for interaction/discussion (presence or absence of live chat box) while keeping other factors such as the topic and lecturer constant. The presence of a chatbox significantly enhanced (1) students’ test scores and (2) students’ sense of community. These effects cannot be attributed to retrieval practice (the well-known “testing effect” e.g., Roediger & Butler, 2011), and instead thematic analysis of learners’ questionnaire responses indicates that it was the sense of community and belonging with the staff – not just other students – created by the chatbox that was most crucial for enhancing students’ learning and positive experience.

This session will be presented by Dr Jen McBride from the University of Manchester

Aims & Objectives