UC San Diego

Online education, also referred to as distance education, has been on a steady rise for over a decade, and California community colleges offer more online courses than any other public higher education institution. Although the success gap, as measured by course completion, between online and face-to-face learning is closing overall, online courses, specifically in California community colleges, continue to have lower success rates than the traditional in-person classes; furthermore, this disparity is exacerbated for students of color. One aspect that has been researched in this instructional modality has been the impact of social presence, or “the degree to which online participants feel connected to one another” (Whiteside, 2017, p. 4) in online courses. In addition, research specifically focused on community college students of color highlights the relational domain of teaching and learning as the foundation for success (Wood & Harris, 2015).

This qualitative study sought to understand and amplify the experiences of students of color in online courses. This study utilized a dual-lens conceptual framework, which merged the Social Presence Model (Whiteside, 2015) with the Pyramid of Student Success for Men of Color in the Community Colleges (Wood and Harris, 2015). Together, they provided complementary lenses to examine how students of color experienced social presence in online courses, and how such experience related to their perceptions of feeling connected to the learning community and supported towards success in their online learning.

Eleven study participants were interviewed in one-on-one semi-structured Zoom interviews. Thematic analysis revealed five main themes, including the magic of human connection, the importance of a warm welcome, the value of student-to-student interaction, the significance of instructor presence, and the clarity of content presentations. The findings give a window into the experiences of students of color in online courses, and implications include ways faculty and leaders can improve the online experiences for students of color and seek to close the gap between face-to-face and online learning.