Caring dialogue

A step toward realising the dream of online learning communities

Abstract

Online educators dream of facilitating interpersonal interactions equivalent to those in face-to-face classrooms as an important factor for promoting learning in online classes. Many current university students are comfortable with online networks as social spaces where they interact with family and friends, but they need help in making them effective as places of learning. A design research study found that the caring dimension of Lipman's (2003) community of inquiry was fundamental to supporting the critical and creative dialogues necessary for development of higher order thinking. It developed and refined an interactive website that may support online educators in realizing the dream of building relationships that more effectively support learning.