Building Communities Through Online Spaces

The Shifting Sands of School Library Education

Abstract

This paper explores the perceived information learning needs of students registered in the Teacher-Librarianship by Distance Learning (TLDL) program at the University of Alberta. This paper reports on the findings related to two main questions: 1. To understand the perceived information needs of students who are completing a Master of Education degree completely online. 2. To understand students’ perceptions of “community” in online spaces. To address these questions, an online survey was distributed to current and former students of this online teacher librarianship education program. Respondents indicated that they had a strong sense of community through the program and the online courses. Community within the TLDL program is built through student-to-student and instructor-to-student interactions. Respondents’ perceived sense of community aligned with the existing literature about building online communities. This study indicates that as more students choose to take courses online, instructors need to carefully consider how to make rich learning experiences that are as good as, or even better than face-to-face learning experiences.