29.2: Online Learners’ Identities

“If you establish an identity, you build a monster— and that’s right, you’ve got to live with it. Of course, you can enjoy it too”. – George Shearing (Tomkins, 1976)

Current discussions about online learning reveal that learners may have a sense of disorientation, isolation, and disembodiment when they first begin an online course. Research also indicates that a sense of anonymity can create a safe place for learner discourse (Blake, 2000; Burbules, 2002; Smith, Ferguson & Caris, 2002). Issues of age, gender, race, socio-economic background, and culture no longer determine how one’s comments will be received. Shy learners find their voices and experience the thrill of being validated by their classmates in public forums. Learners feel more inclined to challenge instructors and, as a result, become more empowered in their learning. The role of a teacher shifts from lecturer to motivator (Easton, 2003; Shale, 2003; Thorpe, 2001; Walker, 2003).

Nevertheless, attrition rates in online courses are significantly high, and studies suggest it is because students are not motivated (Easton, 2003; Hodges, 2004). It is obvious that this presents a contradiction: How can we motivate learners if we are uncertain who they are and what they need?

If we ask learners to provide personal information to help us help them learn, will that undermine the value of their anonymity?

What role does the learners’ sense of anonymity and a perceived alienation from a community in the virtual classroom play in their success in online learning?

Anonymity

Being anonymous is how most Internet users think of themselves and others when using the Internet for collecting information, viewing websites, and playing online games. However, is being anonymous the best way to describe the online learning experience? At its most basic, anonymity refers to not being recognized or known. But in an online classroom, as teachers, we know who the students are by name, and eventually by their contributions and grades.

Anonymity in the online classroom may be better described as having some level of disidentification. Hodges defines disidentification as “a split between a person’s activities and their relations with participation, a rupture between what a person is actually doing, and how a person finds themselves located in the ‘community’” (as cited in Walker, 2003, p. 57). Learners perceive that, even with identifying names, they are still physically invisible and relatively unknown in the virtual classroom. This sense of anonymity in online learning has been found to have a positive influence on the learning experience (Blake, 2000; Burbules, 2002; Smith et al., 2002). Eliminating physical or auditory indicators of gender, age, ethnicity, disability, and physical attractiveness can influence interactions by reducing learner biases and preconceptions and increasing the focus on content.

In addition, learners can become empowered to determine the degree of their own self-disclosure. They can decide how much or how little to share about their personal selves, and they can construct the level of anonymity that best meets their own social and learning needs.

Anonymity also promotes more equality between students and instructors, divesting the teachers of some authority (Burbules, 2002; Easton, 2003; Shale, 2003; Singh & Pan, 2004; Smith et al., 2002; Walker, 2003). Students feel more confident in challenging their instructors and debating ideas. The environment becomes learner-centred, and the experiences and knowledge of all class members are reinforced and validated. Teacher-student and student-student relationships can be stronger online than in traditional classroom environments.

Despite the advantages of being anonymous, there is still a need to present a person’s authentic self, such as appearance and behaviour, to others. People feel uncomfortable if they cannot ascribe gender, race, class, and language to another person (Kirkup, 2001). One of the most common questions asked in online chat rooms is about age, gender or sex, and location, or “a/s/l” (Subrahrnanyam, Smahel & Greenfield, 2006). Many of my students often intentionally seek out the personal details of their classmates by asking where they live, what courses they are taking, their relationship status, and other personal and identifying information.

At its most creative, anonymity not only provides students with an opportunity to alter or suppress features of their identity or personality, it allows them freedom to construct a new identity. Burbules (2002) argues that these are not false or lesser identities but simply different versions of actual identities. He believes that, when engaged in online interactions, the aspects of our real embodied selves are not fully abandoned but are used in different and supplemental ways.

So how does a learner develop an online identity? Inherent in the virtual learning environment are three main influences that will help create a learner identity: textual identity, visual identity, and behavioural identity. From the convergence of these influences, one composite learner identity emerges.

Textual Identity

Deemphasizing a physical identity can encourage the emergence of a more substantial writing identity (Blake, 2000). The quality of the student’s writing can give us many clues. We can tell what they’re thinking, what they understand, and what their biases are. We can also get a sense of their social and cultural backgrounds. Moreover, since textual identity is the primary academic identity, having students create more substantial writing identities provides springboards for more academic modes of discourse.

Academic identity

An academic identity gives us insight into the student’s learning (Blake, 2000, p. 191). Students often feel more comfortable contributing to online discussions than they would in classroom discussions. When students realize that their thoughts will be exposed to others, often semipermanently, it inspires a deeper level of discourse and more profound learning in this safe and somewhat anonymous classroom (Burbules, 2002; Smith et al., 2002; Walker, 2003).

Given that much of online learning is text-based and predicated on writing and language skills, students with language difficulties find that posting carefully edited perspectives can be more effective to their learning and to that of others than speaking in front of a class. Conversely, there is a problem with relying on a student’s writing identity. When writing is the only mode used to demonstrate knowledge in online courses, poor writers may be given an academic identity that does not accurately represent their level of understanding or ability.

Smith et al. (2002) also found a person’s consistency in writing and expressing ideas and attitudes helped instructors not only get a sense of the student’s identity, but it was strong enough to help minimize the issue of online cheating (p. 66). In my courses, it is easy to spot a student’s work when I compare their writing style in their postings with their more formal assignment submissions.

Social identity

Social identities are not completely anonymous in the online classroom, as they might be in other online activities. For example, students’ names can indicate gender, race, or nationality (Blake, 2000).

Writers’ word choices and modes of discourse, such as slang and humour, can also suggest social identities (Blake, 2000). As in face-to-face interactions where the receiver perceives an unintentional non-verbal message from the sender, in online communication the writer’s personality is evident in their word, punctuation, and grammar choices.

Visual Identity

If writing gives us some clues to a person’s personality and identity, the same can be said about how writers portray their physical selves online. The issue of the visual representation of a learner’s physical appearance in an online learning environment centres around three possibilities: whether or not to include a photograph, the choice of an image to represent the learner, or the construction of a new image.

Learners are often asked to post biographies or pictures of themselves as a way to create a social community in the virtual classroom. Most demonstrate that they are familiar with the technical process of uploading a picture to the website, and they appear to be keen to do so. In my seven years of teaching online with over 600 students, there have been only a handful of students who have not had an available digital photograph to use in their course. Even more surprising, only one student has refused to put up a picture. Given the value of being or feeling anonymous, I would have expected more students to resist presenting their physical identities to the class.

One of the most perplexing decisions for learners may not be whether or not to include a picture, but how to choose one that best represents who they are. It is the choice that is significant. The picture that learners choose to share may say more about them than the actual photo (Kirkup, 2001; Hawisher, 2000). Do they choose a picture with their family (secure and traditional), or one cavorting with friends (fun and likable), or one engaging in a sport (outdoorsy and active)? I always am intrigued by the depth of detail that they share with us, such as the student who described his recovery from cancer and posted a picture of himself that showed his cancerous skin lesions.

It is also possible for learners to create an authentic online identity by constructing representations of themselves through altered photos, cartoons, avatars, and animations (Hawisher, 2000). The technology can be used to represent who the learners think they are, or who they’d like to be. This blurring of their physical and virtual selves into something creative might send a clearer message of their identity. One of my students was a police officer who was uncomfortable posting his picture, so he chose to post a picture of a highly identifiable character from the police series NYPD Blue. It was a powerful image of the police detective, Andy Sipowicz, standing in front of the precinct, with his arms folded, and his gaze straight at the camera. I got a tremendous sense of who this student was as a result of his choice of photo.

Burbules (2002) notes that a physical body is just one dimension of identity, and it should not be falsely prioritized as the most important. So what else is important? If some degree of personal anonymity and the ability to create a textual and visual identity have empowering and positive influences on learning, what else is needed?

Behavioural Identity

Interacting as a member in a community is also pivotal to helping learners develop their online identity. A behavioural identity emerges as learners establish a sense of belonging, are motivated to learn and contribute, and achieve success in online learning. Even if it is via a computer screen, there is an inherent desire for human relationships where one can share identities, engage in discourse, and challenge values (Arbaugh, 2001; Kirkup, 2001; Wingard, 2004).

Authors on the subject of education and e-learning basically refer to two types of online communities: the social community and the learning community. The social community is created when learners and instructors develop functional personal relationships, and it is from this sense of connection and belonging that an effective learning environment can emerge (Blake, 2000; Easton, 2003; Meyer, 2003; Robbin, 2001).

Social communities

In a study of online students and what they consider as distressing when taking distance courses, Hara and Kling (2000) discovered that students do not always consider themselves to be isolated if the class bonds as a community. So, how does an effective social community get established when the members never see each other face-to-face and personal characteristics can be obscured and mitigated?

The development of a social community can begin the moment a learner logs into the course and is welcomed into the virtual environment. Learners often can’t help but display their authentic and genuine personalities and beliefs online. I’m often surprised by how many learners will spontaneously post a generic welcome to the class as soon as they’ve logged in, demonstrating an outgoing and social personality.

In an attempt to include learners who are less social, ice-breaking activities work well. In my course, I ask the learners to create a homepage with a small biography and picture of themselves, to read through the homepages of other students, and then to post welcomes to two other students in the class. Through this activity, the course becomes humanizing, and we all have a better sense of everyone’s backgrounds, interests, and levels of experience. It’s interesting to me that students tend to welcome only those students who share a similar demographic dimension to themselves.

Yet, it is a paradox to have students post autobiographies and pictures to help establish a social community, because the disclosure may expose them beyond the safety of their anonymity. Perhaps it is of some benefit that I have no way of knowing if the information the students have chosen to share or the pictures they have selected are genuine, and it may not matter to the development of the social community if students are not exactly who they say they are (Burbules, 2002; Kirkup, 2001).

A successful social community requires regular contributions of all the class participants and the use of immediacy behaviours to establish a sense of camaraderie (Arbaugh, 2001; Meyer, 2003; Walker, 2003; Wingard, 2004). Immediacy “refers to the communication behaviours that reduce social and psychological distance between people; it includes both nonverbal and verbal behaviours” (Arbaugh, p. 43). This includes using conversational language in postings, using humour and personal experiences, and addressing each other by name. These contribute to the sense of being important and valued by another.

It is also interesting to note that in an online social community gender differences and gender-related assumptions still exist, as they do in regular face-to-face exchanges (Burbules, 2002; Kirkup, 2001; Meyer, 2003; Subrahrnanyam et al., 2006). For example, males are more likely to post more questions, use concrete speech patterns, and assert their opinions online. Females are more likely to use polite terminology, empathize with others, and avoid disagreements online.

Once learners have established themselves in the social community, further behavioural identities emerge as they become motivated in the learning community.

Learning communities

Just as immediacy behaviours are important for establishing an online social community, motivating behaviours are important for the learners’ success in the course (Easton, 2003; Hodges, 2004; Robbin, 2001). The learning community is created when learners can explore new concepts through communicating with others. The role of motivator often falls primarily on the instructor, but learners can contribute to positive and energizing class discussions and can motivate others to participate. Within this transactional and dynamic discourse, explicit learning can take place.

The behaviours that learners demonstrate during this process provide more clues to their identities. Do they work well in groups or prefer to work independently? Are they willing to help others, or do they stay in the background? Often it is the same few learners who confidently post their answers first and, similarly, another group of learners who always read all the other postings and post their comments last. Also, learners may feel more comfortable demonstrating aggressive behaviours in the online environment than in face-to-face encounters (Smith et al., 2002).

Learner behaviour is the last component of the identity composite. Even if the behaviour has been adapted for the online environment, it still represents a valid aspect of a learner’s online identity.

Summary

A learner in the virtual classroom follows a progression of initially feeling anonymous and experiencing disidentification, to developing an online identity. Through membership in a social and learning community online, the learner’s behavioural identity emerges. A learner’s written discourse creates a textual identity that gives insight into his or her academic abilities and social background. Pictures or visual representations create a visual identity. Once all these textual, visual, and behavioural cues are put together, like pieces in a puzzle, an online identity emerges. A learner’s online identity isn’t a brandnew identity, nor is it a false identity. It is simply a new version of an already existing identity, which has been tailor-made to maximize e-learning.