Old Dominion University ODU Digital Commons English Theses & Dissertations English Summer 2014 Microblogging as a Facilitator of Online Community in Graduate Education Vincent Anthony Rhodes Old Dominion University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/english_etds Part of the Communication Technology and New Media Commons, Higher Education Commons, Online and Distance Education Commons, and the Rhetoric Commons Recommended Citation Rhodes, Vincent A.. "Microblogging as a Facilitator of Online Community in Graduate Education" (2014). Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), dissertation, English, Old Dominion University, DOI: 10.25777/zk4f-qn16 https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/english_etds/64 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the English at ODU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ODU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MICROBLOGGING AS A FACILITATOR OF ONLINE COMMUNITY IN GRADUATE EDUCATION by Vincent Anthony Rhodes B.S. May 1993, James Madison University M.A. May 2003, Old Dominion University A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Old Dominion University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ENGLISH OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY August 2014 Approved by: Rochelle Rodrigo (Member) UMI Number: 3581686 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI Dissertation PiiblishMiQ UMI 3581686 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 MICROBLOGGING AS A FACILITATOR OF ONLINE COMMUNITY IN GRADUATE EDUCATION by Vincent Anthony Rhodes B.S. May 1993, James Madison University M.A. May 2003, Old Dominion University A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Old Dominion University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ENGLISH OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY August 2014 Approved by: Rochelle Rodrigo (Member) ABSTRACT MICROBLOGGING AS A FACILITATOR OF ONLINE COMMUNITY IN GRADUATE EDUCATION Vincent Anthony Rhodes Old Dominion University, 2014 Director: Dr. Joyce M. Neff Part-time and distance-leaming students can experience a sense of isolation from their peers and the university. Concern about this isolation and resulting student attrition has increased in the midst of explosive growth in online course enrollments. One possible solution: building a stronger sense of community within the online graduate classroom using microblogging technology such as Twitter. Unfortunately, scholars across disciplines define community in different ways with some rejecting the concept altogether in favor of other theoretical constructs. And, few scholars have examined the notion of online classroom community from an English Studies perspective exploring the rhetorical exigencies that underpin this concept. Scholars often write about online community in aspirational terms and fail to demonstrate its existence empirically (Kling and Courtright, 2003). Through the application of two existing pedagogical theories (Rovai’s (2002) concept of classroom community and the well-established Community of Inquiry framework) this dissertation empirically documents the existence of online classroom community in two cases studies of graduate distance-leaming summer sessions. This mixed-methods research study then demonstrates that microblogging technology is capable of both supporting and facilitating the growth of that sense of online classroom community. Because it stands at the convergence of a student’s academic and personal interests, social media software such as Twitter — whether used as a front- or backchannel to the course — is uniquely positioned to serve both as a virtual third place and as a venue for exercising Brooke’s (1999) writing underlife activities and extending Mueller’s (2009) notions of where and how these activities can be played out in a digital context. Finally, this dissertation also offers a five-part alternative definition of online classroom community that strongly links the digital space itself with the affective/emotional concerns addressed in some other theoretical constructions of community. Copyright, 2014, by Vincent Anthony Rhodes, All Rights Reserved. This dissertation is dedicated to Kevin Douglas Maskrey, my partner, in appreciation for his love and support throughout our journey and to Ina Ambrose, my grandmother, with special thanks for making my undergraduate and graduate education possible. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I must first acknowledge my partner, Kevin Maskrey. Without him this journey would not have been possible. His patience through all the classes, all the writing, and all the ‘"writer’s block,” has been much appreciated. He has always taken pride in my academic pursuits and encouraged me to keep going. I am not just a better scholar because of him. 1 am a better person. There's so much more I could say to and about you, but there simply aren’t enough words. I love you. My grandmother, Ina Ambrose, also played a big part in my quest to earn my doctorate. Without her financial assistance and encouragement, my undergraduate and graduate education would not have been possible. Thank you for your pride in my accomplishments and for your love. My dissertation chair, Joyce Neff, kept me on the path — with words of encouragement and swift kicks, as needed. Although she’s quick to say that I did all the work, I know the truth. From the time I participated in her Methods and Methodology course, I have valued her ability to keep an eye on the big picture and know exactly what to say to keep graduate students on-track and keep their self-induced anxiety to a minimum. She taught me to enjoy the journey and persist even when the research context got “messy.” Some of my fondest memories from this process have been sitting in her office discussing my research. I always left those meetings energized and ready to conquer the world. 1 could not have asked for a better mentor and role model. Thank you for teaching me how to be a scholar. vii I also am indebted to my dissertation committee members, Brian McNely and Shelley Rodrigo. Their thoughtful questions and wise comments pushed me to construct a better argument. Their encouragement of and belief in this project (and me) kept me motivated and made it possible to complete this dissertation. Thank you for your enthusiasm and guidance. And, thank you for your willingness to serve on my committee. This research study would not have been possible without the professors who introduced me to the use of Twitter in the classroom. Thank you, Liza Potts and Kathie Gossett. I enjoyed your courses and am grateful to have found a rich topic for research as a result. Thanks also to Kathie Gossett for a great dissertation seminar and candid advice on surviving the process. This dissertation would fail without robust data archives to analyze. I am ever grateful that John O’Brien III decided to invest time in the “fun weekend hack” that became TwapperKeeper. Without that web service and the open source version, yourTwapperKeeper, this study never could have happened. I also thank him for his willingness to communicate via Twitter and e-mail to discuss my Twitter data collection challenges. Thank you for your openness and for helping a struggling PhD student. I know next-to-nothing about virtual servers and Linux commands. Thankfully, Dr. Julie Meloni knows quite a bit. Her help with setting up a cloud server, installing yourTwapperKeeper, and providing me with a cheat-sheet of Linux commands to restart the virtual server as needed made it possible for me to collect my second archive. Thank you for taking pity on doctoral student in need. I appreciate your assistance more than you will ever know. Additionally, I must acknowledge my Dissertation Seminar colleagues — Sam Evans, Carmen Christopher, and Dave Jones — and the ODU Dissertation Boot Camp Facebook group — Beth Bensen-Barber, Rachel Lanier Bragg, Laura Buchholz, Jennifer Buckner, Diane Cooke, Angela Harrison, Jamie Henthom, Megan Mize, Sarah Mosely, Laura Niswonger Bowles, Erin Pastore, Danielle Roney Roach, and Cheri Lemieux Spiegel. Although we “met'’ more sporadically than perhaps we would have liked, our online community kept me going and offered critical emotional and academic support. It was likely the cheapest (and best) group therapy available. You embody what this dissertation hopes to describe. I want other part-time and distance-leaming students to have the same opportunity that we did to forge strong bonds with peers through a variety of digital channels. I want other part-time and distance-learning students to find the mutual support, the intellectual nudges and the pushes for excellence that you provided me. I want them to find online community. Thank you all. It has been a pleasure to be in the physical and virtual company of talented scholars like you. You continue to fascinate and amaze me with your areas of study and your intellectual abilities. I’ll miss our