Abstract
Online learning plays an increasingly important role in community college education. However, evidence has shown that online learning can be a challenge, especially in mathematics, and students are not performing as well in online classes as they are in face-to-face formats. In addition, the online environment can be isolating and lonely, with little opportunity for interaction and group work with fellow students. With the increased demand for online mathematics courses at the community college level, it has become imperative that two-year colleges find ways to increase online student success while simultaneously fostering interaction, collaboration and community. This study focused on embedding required synchronous group work sessions using rich web conferencing tools as a potential solution to these challenges. Through a quasi-experimental design, the goal was to determine the impact of these synchronous group work sessions on students’ academic success and sense of community in online college-level mathematics courses at two Midwestern community colleges. It was hypothesized that these synchronous sessions would increase academic success as well as build classroom community. However, results could not confirm an increase in formative scores, summative scores or sense of community due to the synchronous group work sessions. Only College Algebra experienced a medium effect of treatment on sense of community. Small positive correlations were shown to exist between sense of community and formative and summative scores. Further research with larger samples and greater control of preexisting student differences could clarify the potential of synchronous group work in the online college-level mathematics course.
Advisor
Jason Kaufman
Committee Member
Carrie Miller
Committee Member
Anne Weyandt
Date of Degree
2020
Language
english
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Department
Educational Leadership
College
Education
Recommended Citation
Naughton, C. L. (2020). Effects of synchronous group work on learning and community in online mathematics at community colleges [Doctoral dissertation, Minnesota State University, Mankato]. Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato. https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/etds/992/
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Included in
Community College Leadership Commons, Online and Distance Education Commons, Science and Mathematics Education Commons
Rights Statement
