Date of Award

12-30-2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Specialization

Communication and Leadership

School or Department

School of Leadership Studies

First Advisor

Dr. Carolyn Cunningham

Second Advisor

Dr. David Givens

Abstract

This research examined how some of the graduate students and instructors from a small western university interpreted the meaning of online silence and how this concept affected their overall online academic experience. This thesis used an organizational ethnographic study in which the graduate students and instructors formed subcultures in the overall online graduate program. The Cultural Approach to Organizations was used as the theoretical basis to discover the meanings attributed to this topic from the perspective of the members of this community. Previous research of this topic primarily focused on comparing online educational classes to face-to-face classrooms. These perspectives focused on face-to-face as superior to online education and was used as the baseline for judging what was considered problematic. In this study online silence was defined somewhat differently by the informants and participant observer. These included a lag in response time, a lack of engagement/interaction and as a nonverbal cue. In spite of the differences, there appeared to be a consensus between students and instructors on the meaning of silence as primarily a lack of presence. When viewed from the perspective of the actual online community, this lack of presence was demonstrated by an excessive response time after sending important messages/assignments. The informants and participant observer also felt that it was not silence itself that was problematic, rather it was the lack of cues to help interpret what the silence meant. It appeared that both subcultures felt that there were some relatively easy methods that could be employed to help overcome some of these negative connotations. A few potential solutions mentioned were to develop methods to keep instructors/students informed of when work was received and approximately how long it might take to receive a response and in actively engaging and having consistent interaction on the discussion board. Results of this study further suggested that, although most of these informants Abstract were satisfied with their educational experience, they felt it could be improved by developing a norm for both of these subcultures of responding within 24 hours unless otherwise specified in the syllabus, an announcement and/or e-mail.

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