For the distance learners, online social media was important in facilitating the creation of a community which allowed individuals to feel connected to others in similar situations. The online community provided a private space, away from tutors, in which students could vent frustrations and ask for advice and support from others:
We’re the first group to set up a […] private Facebook account and we, you know, we shared everything from how to do stats to slagging off people, you know, it was really a supportive “get everything off your chest, help people out”, sort of session, which was really nice (Tom, phase 2)
Many of the distance learners valued this social environment away from tutors, where they felt free to ask questions and complain to each other. For Tom, this Facebook group made the difference between an unenjoyable distance learning undergraduate degree with no interaction between students, and a more enjoyable master’s degree. Tom lacked academic interaction with his work colleagues, some of whom he felt reacted negatively to his
studying. Facebook therefore provided a forum with others whom he felt shared similar interests and experiences. For many, the Facebook group provided reassurance that they were not the only ones struggling with the degree. The community became Lisa’s main source of social contact during the writing of her dissertation:
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I had made a conscious decision to not do anything until after the dissertation. I didn’t socialise, I didn’t go out, […] which meant that my [online course] relationships were probably my strongest relationships at that time because they were the people that I was communicating with. (Lisa, phase 2)
As the online community were undertaking the same degree it is likely that this created a sense of belonging and understanding of each other that individuals may have felt lacking in other relationships. Feeling a sense of belonging to the social group online is likely to have reduced feelings of stress due to the perception that others will help, which can lead to an increased sense of control and higher levels of self-esteem (Wilcox et al., 2005). Facebook became an emotion-focused coping strategy for the group who used it to seek the social support needed to enable them to deal with the stresses of the master’s degree (David & Suls, 1999). Lisa felt that without the group many students may have dropped out, highlighting the importance of the social community for those students who may lack support elsewhere in their lives.
Alongside emotional support, the Facebook group provided a space in which students were able to exchange their marks in order to better understand how their own progress related to others:
I actually this time said “look, this is my mark let’s just share and share, how is everyone doing? Roughly who’s at the top and who’s not at the top?” So that was really good to see exactly where people were […] sitting in the course (Lisa, phase 1)
As the students lacked the opportunity to observe the abilities of others within regular classroom settings, social media provided a forum in which they could better understand their own strengths and weaknesses. Social comparisons are an important source of information when developing academic self-concepts (Bong & Skaalvik, 2003). The online community provided a reference group against which students were able to define themselves (Antonio, 2004) and understand their own abilities. This reference group was especially important during the transition into the novel situation of the master’s degree where individuals lacked other indicators of success. However, this group was created by Lisa, a natural ‘social instigator’ (Lisa, phase 1), without whom the participants may not have had this valuable resource.
Despite the benefits of the online social community, it did not replace in-person contact with individuals:
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we’ve got our own sort of secret Facebook group which is quite, you know, it’s supportive to an extent, but it’s not really the same as, and you know, people live all over the world so you can’t really see them. (Jodie, phase 1)
Jodie felt that the Facebook group was no substitute for in-person contact. Jodie regularly described her difficulties with learning to use the technology required for the degree and the novelty of online communication. In general, Jodie struggled with technology and was unfamiliar with online communication. She found it harder to adjust to than many of the other students who were already familiar with the technology. Jodie segregated her online community from her ‘normal’ life:
It’s like another world sitting alongside your normal life, which if you went to university in person you wouldn’t have because that would be your actual physical life whereas an online life is not a physical life (Jodie, phase 4)
Jodie therefore did not seem to identify or connect with the social media in the same way as some of the younger students. Due to the potential difficulties caused by adapting to
technology, it is clear that the personal factor in higher education cannot be replaced (Phipps & Merisotis, 1999). Residential weeks were therefore important in enabling the distance learners to meet and feel part of a community, which later facilitated online contact:
Having met them in person helped a lot, the residential, even just having the face and you know, you kind of get a sense of their personality and erm, so I think that was very helpful to me because you know, email sometimes […] you don’t get the tone, it’s just more dry by email. And sometimes the way somebody says something is much more telling than what they actually say. I like face-to-face contact more for that reason. (Chloe, phase 2)
Online discussions via email or Facebook lack verbal and visual cues (Robson, 2011) meaning that tutors and students need to be especially aware of how their writing may be interpreted (see section 5.4).
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