The Effective Digital Socrates: Developing Trust in Virtual Learning Communities ALN Orlando November 2001 Nancy W. Coppola S. Roxanne Hiltz Naomi Rotter

Trust Development in Virtual Teams Online faculty role changes Faculty perceptions of online community building Correlation to theories of swift trust with coding scheme Strategies for trust formation

Online Faculty Role Changes ( Prior ALN presentation) Authors designed and conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with faculty Cognitive role: deeper cognitive complexity Affective role: new tools to express emotion Managerial role: more detail, structure, and monitoring

Swift Trust – concept developed by Meyerson, Weick, and Kramer (1996) Swift trust is a concept relating to temporary teams whose existence is formed around a clear purpose and common task with a finite life span. Its elements include a willingness to suspend doubt about whether others who are "strangers" can be counted on in order to get to work on the group's task...

Swift Trust elements ...and a positive expectation that the group activity will be beneficial. It is built and maintained by a high level of activity and responsiveness.

Global Virtual Teams (prior research) Distinct communication and behaviors Analysis of behaviors and actions both in early and later stages of group work Jarvenpaa and Leidner 1998

Research hypotheses Faculty who become successful virtual professors overcome the coldness in the electronic media with social communication clues in discussion conferences. The most effective online teachers get a good start in the very first week of online classes Once established, swift trust remains

Research Methods Selected most effective teacher using data from student questionnaires Examined instructor’s online discussion forums or conferences Analyzed Introduction conference in which instructor and students introduce themselves

Coding the Data Interaction Process Analysis (Bales, 1950) (modified) Pattern analysis software (QSR NVIVO)

Swift Trust Coding Scheme Positive expectations about the course Negative expectations about the course Social emotional positive Social emotional negative Task area – asks for help Task area – gives help Technical/logistical/procedural

Early Communication Out of 297 coded passages in the Introductions Conference 35 instances of instructor social emotional positive (32) or negative (3) 74 instances of student social emotional positive Most frequent is “hello” or variations

Expectations Enthusiasm facilitates early trust Evidence of positive expectations about the course in 34 instructor instances and 89 student instances “I’m looking forward to getting to know you. I hope I will have interesting discussions about diverse issues in the class.”

Task-Related Communication Coping with technical and task uncertainty is important Evident in giving information 15 instructor passages 53 student passages Evident in asking for help 6 instructor passages 12 student passages

Later Communication Later trust formation is shown by predictable communication Frequency counts show consistent pattern in first weeks and in weeks nine and ten of classes

Strategies for Community Building Establish early communication Team members need to perceive the instructor’s presence as soon as they enter the course Develop a positive social atmosphere Team members respond to perceived caring in course Model solidarity, congeniality, and affiliation

Strategies for Community Building Reinforce predictable patterns in communication and action Students need carefully structured activities and regular feedback Involve team members in tasks Group members need to be involved in meaningful tasks in the first week.

Summary In order to build swift trust at the beginning of a course, the instructor needs to structure clear contributions for each student to make, help them cope with any technical or task uncertainties, model and encourage response to each others' contributions. Early encouragement of social communications (and explicit statements of commitment, excitement and optimism) also strengthen trust.

Conclusions Swift trust does form in virtual learning communities Faculty overcome coldness in electronic medium with social communication Effective online teachers get a good start in first week Once established, swift trust carries over if high levels of action are maintained

Future Research Analysis needs to go beyond one instructor Findings need to be correlated with semi-structured interview Compare findings with an analysis of instructors not highly rated

For more details: N. Coppola, S. R. Hiltz, and N. Rotter. "Building Trust in Virtual Teams." Proceedings of IEEE Professional Communication Society 2001 International Professional Communication Conference. Santa Fe, New Mexico, (October 2001).