Date of Award

5-2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Specialization

Communication and Leadership

School or Department

School of Leadership Studies

First Advisor

Dr. Tony Andenoro

Second Advisor

Dr. Heather Crandall

Abstract

This qualitative study sought to discover how interpersonal confirmation and disconfirmation are perceived in online distance learning courses at the community college level by determining the specific communication teacher behaviors that cause confirmation and disconfirmation to be perceived by their students. The philosophical framework for this study stemmed from Martin Buber’s (1965) concept of the “interhuman.” The particular theories that grounded this study are the symbolic interactionism theory and two theories of interpersonal confirmation by Sieburg (1973) and Larson (1976). The data for this study was obtained through focus groups, individual interviews, and open-ended surveys. The results show that confirmation and disconfirmation can be perceived in a CMC context: the online distance-learning course. The results also provide operationalized lists of confirming and disconfirming online teacher behaviors. The findings will further communication studies regarding confirmation and disconfirmation as it is perceived in CMC contexts, and will also serve to benefit distance-learning education research.

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