Express Yourself: Exploring How Students Express Themselves in Online Learning Environments

Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Education Research Association, Chicago, Illinois.Even though online learning has become more popular in recent years, it is still viewed as being cold, impersonal, and lacking the necessary social cues, specifically nonverbal cues, for students to fully express themselves online. However, our research suggests that students are using a limited set of cues in online courses. More importantly, these cues seem to provide new opportunities for students to express emotion, minimize misunderstandings, and nurture a supportive community. Our findings indicate that students are strategically using three nonverbal cues to interact, support and bond with their peers. Unfortunately, our research also discovered that some students worried that the cues were not academic and would undermine their online contributions