A Qualitative Exploration of Students’ Perception of Care When Learning Online: Implications for Online Teaching and Faculty Professional Development

Abstract

The dramatic shift to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted certain global challenges associated with online learning, including our need to better understand the nature of caring relationships in online learning. In the present study, Noddings’s care-centered model of education was applied to explore students’ perception of care and caring behaviors in online courses and the design and pedagogical practices associated with a sense of being cared for based on interviews with 14 online learners. Findings from this study support the notion that online learning environments are robust enough to allow for caring relations to emerge. However, the analysis of student data pointed to a possible missing element in Noddings’s model when applied to online learning, namely “anticipating.” Further, the study highlighted the critical role played by instructors’ competencies in designing collaborative learning activities and feedback processes in the enactment of care ethics when teaching online. A discussion of findings and their implications for online teaching is provided.