The Value of Community Engagement in Online Doctoral Education

Mindel van de Laar; Cristina Mancigotti; Paris Cosma; Dennis Katwal; Eyole N. Monono; Tatenda Zinyemba

doi:10.1007/978-981-99-3212-2_20

The Value of Community Engagement in Online Doctoral Education

Mindel van de Laar^*, Cristina Mancigotti, Paris Cosma, Dennis Katwal, Eyole N. Monono, Tatenda Zinyemba

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › Academic

Abstract

Research among doctoral students’ performance indicates that there is a strong need for financial, content, and networking support. Online solutions can bridge the gap in some of these challenges by providing quality education to doctoral students in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In this study, we examine engagement and a sense of belonging as factors that may lead to an increase in educational success, by researching the case of “Community of Learning for African PhD Students” (CoLA). CoLA is an open access online course learning platform and community, which offers support for Ph.D. fellows in SSA by enhancing their social science content and research skills. Using this case study, we evaluate the course offering on the CoLA platform between 2019 and 2020. In this time, the CoLA platform invested in a package of online courses and retention mechanisms. We perform exploratory research using mixed-methods data, by unpacking the incentives that lead doctoral students to engage in and finish online open access courses. Our findings mainly highlight that by adding course elements such as peer discussions and local context examples and scenarios during class sessions, we can increase the engagement and completion rates in online courses.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Higher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa in the 21st Century:
Subtitle of host publication	Pedagogy, Research and Community-Engagement
Editors	Ben Kei Daniel, Ronald Bisaso
Publisher	Springer
Pages	351-372
Number of pages	22
ISBN (Electronic)	9789819932122
ISBN (Print)	9789819932115
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3212-2_20
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2023

Keywords

Doctoral education
Mixed methods
Online education
Student’s belonging
Sub-Saharan Africa

Access to Document

10.1007/978-981-99-3212-2_20

Cite this

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title = "The Value of Community Engagement in Online Doctoral Education",

abstract = "Research among doctoral students{\textquoteright} performance indicates that there is a strong need for financial, content, and networking support. Online solutions can bridge the gap in some of these challenges by providing quality education to doctoral students in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In this study, we examine engagement and a sense of belonging as factors that may lead to an increase in educational success, by researching the case of “Community of Learning for African PhD Students” (CoLA). CoLA is an open access online course learning platform and community, which offers support for Ph.D. fellows in SSA by enhancing their social science content and research skills. Using this case study, we evaluate the course offering on the CoLA platform between 2019 and 2020. In this time, the CoLA platform invested in a package of online courses and retention mechanisms. We perform exploratory research using mixed-methods data, by unpacking the incentives that lead doctoral students to engage in and finish online open access courses. Our findings mainly highlight that by adding course elements such as peer discussions and local context examples and scenarios during class sessions, we can increase the engagement and completion rates in online courses.",

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The Value of Community Engagement in Online Doctoral Education. / de Laar, Mindel van; Mancigotti, Cristina; Cosma, Paris et al.
Higher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa in the 21st Century: : Pedagogy, Research and Community-Engagement. ed. / Ben Kei Daniel; Ronald Bisaso. Springer, 2023. p. 351-372.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › Academic

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The Value of Community Engagement in Online Doctoral Education

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Keywords

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