Mattering: Serving The Whole Student In Online Learning Communities

Abstract

Location: JC Room C

Nancy Schlossberg (1989) introduced the concepts of marginality and mattering as a way to get educators thinking about HOW we involve students on campus, make them feel included, and share with them the capacity for building community and growing as learners. Given the anonymity and social/personal distance that often comes with online coursework, making students feel as though they matter and that they are seen as whole people is critical. As such, adopting a holistic student development model that focuses on the cognitive, interpersonal, and intrapersonal dimensions of our students serves as a blueprint for engagement and community-building. I strive each day to connect students to the content through cognitive approaches, to each other and to me through interpersonal practices and engagement, and to themselves via self-understanding. I believe that students can sense an instructor's care for them and their learning even over the digital divide. In this workshop I aim to engage with participants on core elements of the cognitive, interpersonal, and intrapersonal "whole student" dimensions. Specific examples/curriculum strategies of each dimension that will be discussed are the following:

Cognitive: Students as collaborators and feedback partners

Interpersonal: Community-building practices and mentoring/connection Intrapersonal: self-reflection and understanding self