| Summary: | The purpose of this case study was to understand how former online, ungraduated transfer students experienced community in their online classes and programs. To fulfill this purpose, two research questions were developed as a foundation for this study: 1) How did online undergraduate transfer students experience community in their online classes and programs? 2) How did their experiences with community impact their decisions to drop out? The data collected included ten
semi-structured, in-depth interviews with former online students, three focus groups that included online instructors, online advisors and instructional designers, historical academic documents, and field notes. Research data were analyzed using an intuitive, inductive process, continual comparison, and a number of coding strategies. The former online students and other participants represented a range of demographics along with other selection criteria. Findings showed that online,
undergraduate transfer students experienced online community through components of engagement. These components consisted of three areas including: extent of student academic commitment, environment created by instructors, and collaboration and interplay with peers, instructors and content. Students also experienced community through mixed support by ancillary services. Students' community experiences were often marred by inauthentic community. Students' community experiences impacted
their decisions to drop out by eroding students' faith in the institution and undermining students' self-confidence. From these findings, five conclusions were drawn. First, instructors serve as the conduits and facilitators of online community. Second, virtual discussions can build community or can devolve into a cacophony of dissonance that undermines community. Third, when choosing online education is a compromise, students engage in their programs from a deficit mentality affecting
community experiences. Fourth, institutional services and policies round out community experiences, but when they do not serve the online student population, they can be the tipping point leading students to drop out. Fifth, poor, inconsistent experiences with online community can have lasting, long-term impacts on academic success and future pursuits of higher education.
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