2013 Technology-Medidated Caring PDF

RUNNING
HEAD: Technology-Mediated Caring
Technology-Mediated Caring: Building Relationships Between Students and Instructors in

Online K-12 Learning Environments
Jered Borup
Charles R. Graham
Andrea Velasquez
Instructional Psychology and Technology
Brigham Young University, USA
Abstract
Caring is an important component of K-12 teaching and learning. An increasing number of K-12
students are enrolling in online courses. The physical separation of students and teachers in the
online medium requires a change in the way caring relationships are formed. In this chapter we
examine how teachers worked to develop caring relationships with students at the Open High
School of Utah, an online charter high school in the United States. Findings indicate that
teachers were able to implement all aspects of Noddings model of moral education in ways
unique to online contexts, and at times with more depth than experienced in a face-to-face
context.
Although teaching is seen as a largely academic pursuit, Stansfield (1961) explained that
teaching is an intensely human vocation (p. 345-346). As a result Johnson (2008) viewed two
aspects of teaching: the academic side and the human side. Although research has focused
largely on the academic side of teaching (Goldstein, 1999), the human side can be more difficult
This is a pre-publication draft of the following chapter:

Borup, J., Graham, C. R., & Velasquez, A. (2013). Technology-mediated caring: Building
relationships between students and instructors in online K-12 learning environments. In
M. Newberry, A. Gallant, & P. Riley (Eds.), Advances in Research on Teaching: Vol. 18.
Emotions in school: Understanding how the hidden curriculum influences relationships,
leadership, teaching, and learning (pp. 183-202). Bimgley, UK: EmeraldBooks.
Technology-Mediated Caring
to perform (Johnson, 2008) and may be foundational to more academic outcomes (Maslow,
1943).
One aspect of the human side of teaching is the formation of caring teacher-student
relationships. Repetto, Cavanaugh, Wayer, and Liu (2010) explained that K-12 teachers have a
high standard of care because at times they are asked to serve as pseudo parents. Researchers in
face-to-face environments have found that quality teacher-student relationships can impact
students academic performance (Muller, Katz, & Dance, 1999), intellectual development
(Goldstein, 1999), and students feelings toward the course and the instructor (Wilson, 2006;
Teven, 2007).
Murphy and Rodriguez (2008) explained that face-to-face learning environments afford
teachers and students several opportunities to engage in dialogue that builds rapport, trust,
mutual respect and a caring relationship (p. 1068). However, an increasing number of K-12
students are enrolling in online courses (Watson, Murin, Vashaw, Gemin, & Rap, 2011)
changing the nature of dialogue between teachers and students. The majority of online courses
rely on asynchronous communication (Parsad & Lewis, 2009). Asynchronous communication
can make the development of caring relationships more difficult resulting in a loss of contact,
loss of connection, and a resultant sense of isolation (Pratt, 2007, p. 31). Yet, there are also
some affordances of online learning that can improve dialogue between students and teachers.
For instance, the flexibility that online learning affords can provide students with the ability to
reflect between exchanges and interact with teachers more conveniently and privately, allowing
students to more freely share information with the instructor (Murphy & Rodriguez, 2008).
Unfortunately, Velasquezs (2012) review of the literature found that research has ignored the
topic of caring in the K-12 online environment. The purpose of this research is to examine how
teachers at an online charter high school worked to form caring relationships with students and
help students develop the capacity to care.
Ethic of Care
Noddings (2008) disputed the idea that caring is a set of behaviours such as cuddling,
patting, hugging, and drying tears (p. 166). Although caring can elicit these types of
behaviours, Noddings (1984) view of care focused on the relationship between the carer and the
cared-for. A caring relationship requires the active participation of both the carer and the caredfor. First, the carer should work to achieve engrossment. Noddings (1988) described
engrossment as total presence (p. 220) and requires the carer to be attentive, open, and
receptive to the cared-for (Noddings, 2008). Engrossment allows the carer to recognize the
cared-fors needs and view situations from their perspective. Following engrossment the carer
may experience motivational displacementa motivating energy that drives the carer to act in
the best interest of the cared-for (Noddings, 1984). Lastly, caring relationships require
reciprocity on the part of the cared-foran acknowledgement that the care has been received.
Reciprocity can include a variety of reactions from a verbal expression of gratitude to a smile.
Noddings (2008) explained that when the cared-for fails to respond there is no caring relation
(p. 163). Noddings (1984) added that caring actions induce joy, which is a major reward for the
one-caring (p. 132). It is important to note that the process of engrossment, motivational
displacement, and reciprocity can happen on different magnitudes and timetables and does not
require a deep, lasting time-consuming personal relation (Noddings, 1984, p. 180). Since the
focus of this chapter will be the educational context, we will refer to the carer as the teacher and
the cared-for as the student. This is not to imply that students cannot care for the teacher;
however, Noddings (2008) explained that in a teacher-student relationship the teacher serves
almost exclusively as carer (p. 163).
Moral Education
In addition to defining caring, Noddings presented a model of moral education that is
based on care. Her model contains four components: dialogue, modelling, practice, and
confirmation. Noddings (2008) defined dialogue as a type of interaction that requires a mutual
search for understanding (p. 169). Furthermore dialogue is open, requiring both parties to listen
and speak (Noddings, 1995). Dialogue is essential in the formation of caring relationships
because it allows for engrossment (Noddings, 1995). Dialogue also is the means by which
teachers learn about their students and allows them to more effectively respond to student needs
(Noddings, 2005).
Second, teachers should work to model what it means to care. This can be done while
engaging in direct dialogue with the students and caring for them. Teachers also model caring
when the student observes the teachers behaviour (Noddings, 2005). However, Noddings
(2008) explained that modelling should not be the primary intent of caring actions but is an
inevitable by-product of genuine caring (p. 169) and it is possible that teachers can
unconsciously model caring behaviours (Bandura, 1986; Brown & Dungiud, 1993).

Third, teachers should provide students with opportunities to engage in caring behaviours
themselves. Every human encounter provides an opportunity to care (Noddings, 2008). Teachers
can help to facilitate these caring encounters through group work or service projects. However,
students participation in these types of activities does not ensure that they will practice caring
and it is more likely to occur when the teacher reminds students of the importance of caring and
monitors their behaviour (Noddings, 2008).
The last component of a moral education is confirmation. Confirmation occurs when the
teacher affirms the best in others (Noddings, 2005). Noddings (2008) explained, acts of
confirmation point students upward by recognizing a better self already partly formed and
struggling to develop (p. 172). Acts of confirmation occur when teachers react to student
actionsgood or badby revealing to the student their best self (Noddings, 1988). For instance
following poor student behaviour a teacher can show disappointment while still attributing the
behaviour to the best possible motive. Noddings (2008) described this type of confirmation as
perhaps the loveliest of moral acts (p. 172).
Online Social Presence
Noddings explained that caring teacher-student relationships require total presence
(Noddings, 1988, p. 220). Within the online learning context, teachers and students are
separated by space and often time, requiring their dialogue to be mediated by technology.
Although online teachers and students cannot be present physically they can establish online
social presence a prerequisite to establishing caring relationships online.

Garrison, Anderson, and Archers (2000) Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework

defined social presence as participants ability to project themselves socially and emotionally,
as real people (i.e., their full personality), through the medium of communication being used
(p. 94). Although Garrison et al. (2000) believed that social presence is more easily established
when non-verbal cues are present, Rourke, Anderson, Garrison, and Archers (2001) content
analysis of text based discussion boards found that online learners were able to establish a high
level of social presence via text by posting affective responses (i.e. expressions of emotions,
humour, and self-disclosure), interactive responses (i.e. acknowledging the contributions of
others, continuing a thread, and asking questions), and cohesive responses (i.e. addressing others
by name, using inclusive language such as we and our, and the use of phatic communication and
salutations). Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, and Archer (2001) added that social presence was
more likely to be achieved when teachers facilitated discourse with and among students,
modelled appropriate communication behaviour and etiquette, and monitored course
communications.
Research Context
Research was conducted at the Open High School of Utah (OHSU), an online charter
high school in the western United States that opened Fall 2009. In its inaugural year OHSU
enrolled 127 grade 9 students and employed four full-time teachers. OHSU has steadily grown
and during the 2011-12 academic year OHSU enrolled 381 students, grades 9-12, and employed
21 teachers (15 full-time, 4 part-time, and 2 adjuncts). Most students (86%) took the majority or
all of their course work through OHSU completely online. OHSUs overall course pass rate was
80% and exceeded the state averages on Utahs Criterion Referenced Tests (CRT) for Math,
Science, and English (OHSU, 2011).
OHSU was an especially appropriate setting for this research because teachers work to
establish close relationships with students. At OHSU the majority of the learning materials are
designed prior to the course and organized into weekly units. The weekly units are then placed
on OHSUs online learning management system allowing students to access the materials at their
own convenience during the week. This model eliminates the need for teachers to present
information multiple times and affords them with additional time to tutor and interact with
individual students. Each teacher has four online office hours in which they are accessible to
students via email, instant messaging, phone, and video conferencing. Teachers also spend a
portion of their workday identifying and contacting students who need additional support.
Students are provided with an open online forum where they can interact with other students
socially. In addition, OHSUs mission statement emphasizes the importance of service and
ethics in student achievement. To help fulfil their stated mission, OHSU organizes several
service projects within the community and has instituted a peer tutoring program.
Purposeful sampling was used to ensure a maximum variation of teacher experiences and
perspectives (Patton, 1980). In total, nine full-time and two part-time teachers were selected for
participation in two 45-60 minute interviews: two social studies teachers, two math teachers, two
language arts teachers, two science teachers, a health teacher, a Spanish teacher, and a special
education teacher. Four participants were in their first year of teaching at OHSU, six were in
their second, and one was in her third. Although none of the selected teachers had previously
taught in a K-12 online setting prior to working at OHSU, 9 of the 11 had previously taught in K12 face-to-face settings averaging 5.8 years experience.
Interviews were transcribed and analysed using constant comparison coding methods.
Guided by Noddings four components of a moral education (i.e. dialogue, confirmation,
modelling, and practice) the primary author coded all 22 interviews. During the coding process
members of the research team met regularly to review the coding and discuss emerging themes.
Once the coding was complete for each teacher, the coding categories were examined across all
cases to identify comparative findings and common themes.
Findings
Although physically separated from students, OHSU teachers were able to form caring
relationships and provide a moral education by maintaining a high level of dialogue with
students, engaging in acts of confirmation that help students to recognize their better self,
modelling to students what it means to care, and providing students with opportunities to care for
their peers. Below we outline the ways that OHSU teachers were able to implement Noddings
four components of a moral education as they establish relationships with their students.
Dialogue
There were a variety of ways that teachers at OHSU facilitated dialogue: through
personal tutoring, interactions focused on informal social topics, and the schools shepherding
program. Although not every student was receptive to teachers attempts to interact, overall
teachers reported a high level of teacher-student dialogue at OHSU. In fact, OHSU teachers with
previous face-to-face teaching experience believed that teaching online allowed them to spend
more time in one-on-one dialogue with students than they experienced in face-to-face settings.
For instance, Lisa explained, I feel like I get to spend one-on-one quality time with my students
and really work with them on what they are struggling with. I didnt get to do that as much in
the public high school area. Similarly, Rachel stated that in a face-to-face environment her
communication with students was all very superficial because thats what [she] had time for
but at OHSU she had more time to get to deeper levels of communication with students.
Teachers ability to engage in higher and deeper levels of dialogue with students was the result
of several factors. First, teachers physical separation from students reduced their custodial and
supervision responsibilities. Second, OHSU allowed teachers to develop their curriculum in the
summer or provided them with pre-made curriculum reducing teachers lesson planning
responsibilities during the academic year. Third, teachers found that in a face-to-face
environment they were required to present the same thing over and over and over. In contrast,
OHSU placed learning material online where students could access it on their own time allowing
instructors to spend the majority of their time contacting and working with students.
One-on-one tutoring. Teachers shift in responsibilities afforded them the time to have
four office hours each school day where students could receive one-on-one tutoring. This oneon-one dialogue was open ended allowing teachers to achieve engrossment and motivational
displacement. As a result teachers were able to recognise students individual academic needs
and respond in way that helped meet those needs. Christine explained:

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Some [students] just need me to sort of hold their hand and say, Yup, youre doing a
good job and others need a lot more help setting up or working on problems or questions
on the assignment . . . Other times its 30 minutes of one-on-one tutoring.
When teachers were not responding to student questions it was common for them to proactively
contact students in an attempt to initiate dialogue. This was typically done via instant messaging
such as Gchat. Steffanie explained, I usually try to reach out to them and say, Hey, how is
everything going today? Is there anything I can help you with?
In order to better meet student need, teachers commonly scheduled their office hours
during times that were most convenient for their students--including evenings--even if it was less
convenient for themselves. This type of scheduling also occurred on an individual basis. For
instance, Megan shared an experience of a struggling student who went to Disneyland so she
made time to tutor him over the phone whenever he had time to work in his hotel room. This
kind of individual attention demonstrated by teachers efforts to reach out and accommodate
students schedules can be seen as an indicator of motivational displacement.
Social dialogue and shepherding. OHSU teachers and students engaged in a high level
of informal social dialogue that focused on non-academic topics. This type of dialogue helped to
establish social presence and close personal relationships. For instance, at the beginning of the
course teachers shared personal information, pictures, and an introductory video with students.
Similarly, students introduced themselves to teachers and peers using surveys, essays, and
videos. Most of the teachers dialogue with students was text-based and teachers found the
medium to be less personal than face-to-face communication. As a result teachers attempted to
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engage students in video communication. While video communication cannot exactly replicate
face-to-face communication, teachers found that videos fidelity allowed students and teachers to
put a face with the name while still being separated physically and maintaining the benefits of
online learning. John added that video communication helped his students view him as more
of a person . . . instead of an abstract thing on the internet somewhere and Alex enjoyed
viewing her students in video because they became real people.
Social dialogue was also facilitated by a school wide shepherding program. Each
teacher was given about 20 students to shepherd that they contacted weekly to engage them in
open dialogue regarding topics that extended beyond course material. Lisa described the
dialogue as being casual, I will just check in with them periodically and be like, Hey, tell me
what you have been doing lately. Rachel found that the shepherding program provided
students the opportunity to tell her all about their volleyball games or their plays that theyre
currently in or their chess tournaments. Megan also told of an experience where she played a
game of online chess with a student who was interested in the game. Overall teachers found that
this type of dialogue helped in building good rapport with students. Lisa also believed that
when students felt the teacher knew them individually they would be more willing to
communicate with you when you contact them. Rebecca added, Working individually with
the students like I do online can and does create friendships. Many of these relationships
appeared to be stronger than what teachers experienced in face-to-face settings. Steffanie
explained, I have been totally amazed by how much better I can know the kids online than I
could in a classroom.
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Of course teachers still expressed difficulty in engaging some reluctant students in

dialogue. John believed that some students who may have been more willing to engage in
dialogue face-to-face refused to do so online because its very easy for the student to just delete
the email or ignore the phone call when it comes in. Lisa explained that with some students,
It doesnt matter what the teachers have done to contact them . . . we just get no response and
no engagement. Students unwillingness to communicate is not unique to the online
environment and Rachel found that when she taught students face-to-face some students sat in
the back of the classroom and never said a word.
Confirmation
Noddings explained that one purpose of caring dialogue was to engage in acts of
confirmation by helping students recognize their better self already partly formed and struggling
to develop (Noddings, 2008, p. 172). This was commonly done by OHSU teachers primarily by
providing students with positive praise and encouragement, helping students to recognize their
mastery experiences, and correcting students misbehaviour while simultaneously recognizing
their good intentions. First, all teachers reported providing students with encouragement while
working on projects and positive praise when the project was successfully completed. Steffanie
stated, I feel like one of my most important jobs is really to cheer them on, You can do this. I
will help you. . . . I am on the other side of the computer with my virtual pom poms. These
cheerleading activities were typically done via email, instant messaging, and text messages.
These messages appeared to help students build confidence in their abilities. For instance one of
Alexs students received positive feedback following an assignment and replied, No one has
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ever told me I was good at English or good at writing. Following that experience Alex found
that the student blossomed . . . and [became] one of [her] best writers. It was also common for
teachers to publicly praise students by posting their exemplar work to a course page that was
accessible by all students within the course management system. Teachers termed this space the
wow wall, strut-your-stuff wall or fabulous finds wall. For instance, Steffanie began
showing one students assignments to the class as a good example and explained that, [the
student] was kind of amazed by that at first. . . She [said], Oh wow, I never thought I did all that
great of a job. Steffanie also found that providing encouragement to underperforming students
had similar effects and shared the following experience:
There is one particular student that I have had and the first quarter he really struggled. . .
Then I got his personal cell phone number and I would text him positive encouraging
notes every week and he would still barely pass. I think we got him to squeak in with a D
the first quarter. Maybe a D+ or a C- the second quarter and now this quarter I still send
him all those positive weekly text messages but he has got a B right now and I just sent
him an email saying, You know what? You could totally have an A in my class this
quarter and here is the plan to make that happen this week. . . . So I am happy that I can
see a positive change in him.
Following poor student behaviour such as bullying and cheating, teachers attributed
student actions to the best possible motive consonant with reality (Noddings, 2008, p. 171).
Megan said she liked her students even when their behaviour was poor and worked to let
students know that she liked them because they are a nice person, not because [of their
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performance in] my class. It was also common for teachers to see students misbehaviours as
honest mistakes. Lisa felt that students posted insensitive discussion board comments because
they did not understand how messages can come across in text and it really wasnt their intent
to be that way. Similarly, Rachel believed that students engaged in cyber-bullying because
they dont understand that cyber-bullying is actually bullying requiring teacher to provide
students with direct instruction on online etiquette. In addition Samantha attributed some student
cheating to students desire to help their peers. Following those cases Samantha tried to help
them understand that helping and cheating are two separate things Alex also viewed one
students plagiarism as an uncharacteristic act of desperation, One studentjust a nice guyhe
was just in over his head and was panicked and plagiarized. I feel like its been a good learning
experience for him.
Modelling
Noddings (2008) explained that a teacher cannot care for a student without
simultaneously modelling what it means to care. Teachers at OHSU recognized that students
were observant of their caring actions. For instance, Lisa believed that her dialogue with
students helped them know that she was concerned and cared about them as individuals.
Students reciprocity to teachers caring actions was important in letting teachers know that their
caring actions were received and modelled to students. For instance following video
communication with students John said that several students in their emails would say, Thank
you, I really enjoy US History. Youre a really fun teacher! Similarly Lisa said that following

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her shepherding activities it was common for students to tell her Thanks, this is great! I
appreciate you thinking about me.
These verbal indicators were especially important when the dialogue was text based and
teachers were unable to see non-verbal signs of reciprocity such as smiling that are evident in
synchronous video and face-to-face communication. Similarly, teachers physical separation
from students appeared to limit their ability to model care. For instance, Rachel found that it
was more difficult to model care using text because students were more prone to misunderstand
her actions:
Learning how to send an email that shows them that I love them that I really do care
about them and yet still hold them accountable, that has probably been the biggest
learning curve for me. . . So now everything is smiley faces and exclamation points and
Have a fabulous day! Im so happy you emailed me! and you have to go so over the
top.
John added that it was more difficult for students to observe teachers interactions with other
students because they only see the interactions you have with them for the most part.
However, Steffanie believed that even private caring could be vicariously observed by students:
I know they definitely tell their other peers, the friends that they have here, dont be afraid to
ask her questions, shes really nice about it. I know that kind of travels around amongst our
students.
Practice

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Noddings (2008) explained that all human encounters are opportunities to practice care.
As a result OHSU teachers worked to provide students with opportunities to interact with their
peers. For instance, several teachers required peer interaction on asynchronous discussion
boards. These interactions tended to be highly organized and with strict guidelines that
emphasized the importance of being civil to one another. John found that he needed to
emphasize students being respectful in their comments even when they disagreed with their
peers. He found that some students would come across as being a little too nasty because they
did not understand the online etiquette as much as face-to-face conversation etiquette.
Steffanie also found that when students were participating in a discussion board she would
normally post some sort of reminder of proper etiquette to remind students that when you are
speaking to your peers, do so respectfully even if you disagree.
Students were also provided with an open social forum where they could communicate
with their peers. Lisa described the forum as a kind of like an online hallway because it is
where the kids can go and just chat and have that social connection with one another. Samantha
found that the forum was similar to Facebook and gave students a chance to communicate with
other people in the same position as them . . . to have that support.
Students also used other social media to communicate such as Twitter, which is where
students from OHSU often demonstrated care for fellow students. For instance, John observed
the following caring act on Twitter: One of my students posted in her Twitter feed. She said,
How did you like that video clip that I sent to you? and the girl Tweeted back Perfect! This
will be great for the Revolutionary Project. Similarly Rachel observed acts of reciprocity
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between students, Students would Tweet, So-and-So, thank you so much for your help; it was
so nice! Julia also found that students used Twitter to engage in acts of confirmation:
That Twitter feed is fantastic for that as well, because theyll say, Oh, Im just having
trouble with my math today, I just cant get motivated and theyll Tweet it out and youll
see another [student] Tweet: You can do it, youre a great student! Youll be fine!
Beyond participation in discussion boards teachers tended not to require student
collaboration because it removed some of the flexibility that some students required. As a result
there was an unwritten policy at OHSU that you cant make [students] do group work.
However, OHSU provided students with several optional opportunities to practice caring with
their peers. For instance, OHSUs National Honours Society (NHS) organized a tutoring
program that connected successful students with students who needed tutoring. Rachel also
provided students with an on-line whiteboard where students could collaborate if they chose:
I just have a link to a thing called Scribbler in my courses. Its basically an on-line
whiteboard . . . Ive seen students get on there and work together every now and then, but
its just informal and up to them. . . One time I randomly clicked on Scribbler. . . and I
saw two students working in there. They didnt know I was in there, and I was listening
to them working back and forth, and the one girl explaining it to the other and theyre
helping each other. I guess thats one of those moments where its like, Yes! It wasnt
something that I set up, it wasnt something formal, but they were helping each other and
both benefiting from it.
Discussion
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Online learning is often viewed as student-led and teacher-less (Compton, Davis, Correia,
2010). This view is consistent with many independent study programs that provide students with
learning materials but have limited or no teacher-student interaction (Anderson, 2009; Garrison,
2009). These types of programs focus largely on the academic side of teaching and neglect the
human and moral side of teaching. An increasing number of online programs have begun to take
a more holistic approach and provide students with quality learning activities that are coupled
with a high level of human interaction. Guided by Noddings ethic of care and moral education,
this chapter examined the ability of OHSUs teachers to provide students with a moral education
at a distance. While there were positives and negatives in attempting to form caring
relationships, overall interviews found thatalthough physically separated from students
OHSU teachers were able to form caring relationships and provide a moral education by
maintaining a high level of dialogue with students, engaging in acts of confirmation that help
students to recognize their better self, modelling to students what it means to care, and providing
students with opportunities to care for their peers.
Success Through In-depth Dialogue
Dialogue formed the foundation for a moral education because it allowed teachers to
learn about their students, recognize their needs, and respond to those needsthus modelling
what it means to care. Dialogue also allowed students to engage in acts of reciprocity by
acknowledging that teachers caring actions had been received. Furthermore dialogue enabled
teachers to engage in acts of confirmation by providing students with positive praise and
encouragement. Our interviews with OHSU teachers show that the ability to dialogue with
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students also appeared to be a major contributor to teacher satisfaction. One teacher stated, I
love it so much. As an online teacher I can focus on whats important.
Noddings (2008) claimed that high school teachers tend not to be afforded the necessary
time to form caring relationships with students and advocated for educational innovations that
would increase the personal contact that teachers have with students. Some online learning
programs have a higher student-to-teacher ratio than is found in face-to-face environments
further reducing the personal contact that teachers have with students. For example, Hawkins,
Barbour, and Graham (2012) examined student-teacher interaction at a large state funded virtual
high school where the student-to-teacher ratio was 1:233 and classes ranged in size from 2 to
1,726. Within this setting it was found that teachers struggled to form caring relationships with
students and tended to care for students collectively and not individually. OHSUs student-toteacher ratio was more closely aligned with the national average for student-to-teacher ratios
found in face-to-face learning environments (Aud et al., 2012) allowing them to have a higher
level of personal contact with students and care for them on an individual level. OHSU teachers
with previous face-to-face teaching experience reported that they were able to spend more time
in one-on-one dialogue with students online than they did in face-to-face settings. In addition,
teachers reported that the quality of interactions with students was better online because it was
typically open ended and one-on-one, allowing them to achieve deeper levels of
communication than was possible in a face-to-face classroom. This research provides three
primary insights into how OHSU teachers were able to establish a high level of rich dialogue
with students. First, OHSU provided teachers with pre-designed content and learning activities
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that were organized and placed online for students to access. This reduced teachers need to
prepare lesson plans or present material multiple times. Instead teachers primarily spent their
time in one-on-one dialogue with students. Peters (1971) industrial model of instruction
recommended that teachers responsibilities be closely examined to identify responsibilities that
can be performed more effectively or efficiently by others. This type of effort may result in
teachers spending additional time engaging in dialogue with students.
Second, OHSU teachers worked to achieve a high level of social interactions with their
students. Murphy and Rodriguez-Manzanares (2008) found that caring relationships are better
developed when teachers and students engage in casual social interactions outside of class (p.
1068). This type of interaction is especially important because effective dialogue requires
teachers and students to know each other well enough for trust to develop (Noddings, 1988, p.
223). However, casual and social dialogue can be difficult online where interactions tend to be
focused on course content and procedures (Downs & Moller, 1999; Hawkins, Barbour &
Graham, 2011; Murphy & Rodriguez-Manzanares, 2008). To overcome this obstacle OHSU
helped to facilitate casual and social dialogue through a school wide shepherding program
where students were assigned to a teacher who contacted them weekly regarding more social
topics. Other online programs should work to find innovative ways to facilitate social dialogue
online.
Third, instructors found that their dialogue was more effective once teacher and student
social presence had been established. This belief is supported by Tu and McIsaacs (2002)
correlational study that found a significant relationship between social presence and interactivity.
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Although previous research has found that social presence can be established in a text-based
environment, OHSU teachers supplemented their text communication with asynchronous whole
class video introductions and one-on-one synchronous video communication as a way to more
fully establish social presence in their courses. Velasquezs (2012) research in the same context
also found that teachers valued synchronous video communication because it helped them to
form caring relationship with students although students preferred the comfort and convenience
of text communication until after a caring relationship had been formed. Asynchronous video
communication may be a possible compromise by providing teachers with the nonverbal
communication cues that can be important in forming relationships while still maintaining the
convenience and comfort that students desire. This is supported by research in higher education
contexts has found that the non-verbal communication cues contained in asynchronous
communication can help students and teachers to efficiently and effectively establish social
presence while still maintaining a high level of flexibility (Borup, Graham, & Velasquez, 2011;
Borup, West, & Graham, 2012; Griffiths & Graham, 2009, 2010). Future research should
examine the use of asynchronous video in a K-12 online environment and work to identify
additional strategies that can help teachers and students quickly establish online social presence.
Difficulties of Medium Limitations
Although it was found that teachers could provide students with a moral education at a
distance, teachers also reported limitations in doing so. First, all teachers found that some
students refused to engage in dialogue with them. Noddings (2008) explained that caring
relationships require the active participation of the teacher and the student. As a result students
22
willingness to enter dialogue is important to the maintenance of personal relationships

(Noddings, 2008, p. 170). Although teachers reported that some of their face-to-face students
were just as unwilling to engage in dialogue, this appeared to be a more common problem online.
This may be reflected in online learnings attrition rate, which tends to be higher than face-toface courses (Carr, 2000; Patterson & McFadden, 2009).
Second, most of teachers dialogue with students was private and one-on-one. As a result
it was more difficult for students to observe teachers interactions with other students. John
explained that in a face-to-face learning environment he could more effectively model caring
because students see how you interact with other students, they see how you treat other
students, so they see a lot more of you than just the interactions they have with you. It appears
that traditional face-to-face learning models enable teachers to more efficiently model caring
because a caring act is observed more easily by other students in the class, but makes it difficult
to engage in acts of caring with individual students. Inversely, OHSUs online teaching model
enabled teachers to effectively engage in caring acts with individual students but teachers
modelled less caring acts to students because students were largely privy only to their personal
interactions with the instructor. Additional research should seek to explore the effect that quality
and quantity of modelling has on students ability to learn what it means to care.
In addition, it was somewhat difficult for students to practice caring with their peers
because they did not understand how messages can come across in text. As a result it is
important that teachers model appropriate online etiquette to students (Anderson et al., 2001;
iNACOL, 2008). The International Association for K-12 Online Learnings (iNACOL, 2011)
23
national standards for quality online courses also recommends that online etiquette standards
should be clearly stated indicating that students may require some direct instruction on the
topic (p. 2). In addition, Rice and Dawley (2007) found that facilitating appropriate online
etiquette was a common topic of online teacher in-service training, which may be a reflection of
new teachers inability to effectively facilitate online etiquette. Future research should work to
identify effective methods to ensure that students use proper etiquette because improper etiquette
can undermine students attempts to practice caring with their peers.
Lastly, in face-to-face learning environments students commonly practice caring while
collaborating on projects. However, OHSU teachers found it difficult to require student
collaboration on projects because it removed some of the flexibility that online learning offers.
Although student-managed wikis, blogs, and Google Documents allow students to collaborate
asynchronously on projects, Beldarrains (2006) review of the literature found little research
regarding their implementation. As research in the area grows it may be possible to identify best
practices for collaboration while still maintaining a high level of flexibility.
Limitations
There were two primary limitations to this study that can be addressed by future research.
First, this study contained a relatively small sample size from a single context preventing the
generalization of these findings to other contexts. Future research should seek to understand
caring in a variety of schools with varying ages and learning models. Such research would likely
produce additional insights because budgets, availability of personnel, size of the school, state
models, and models of instruction are all likely to change the roles that are expected of an online
24
educator (Ferdig et al., 2009, p. 496). Second this research relied solely on teacher interviews.
Greene, Caracelli, and Graham (1998) explained that all methods have inherent biases and
limitations, so use of only one method to assess a given phenomenon will inevitably yield biased
and limited results (p. 256). Future research may seek to triangulate these findings using
student interviews, virtual observations, and content analyses of emails and discussion boards.
Obtaining this type of information from online K-12 learning environments can be difficult to
obtain and time consuming to analyse but it may provide key insights into technology-mediated
caring.
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Technology-Mediated Caring: Building Relationships Between Students and Instructors in

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Garrison, Anderson, and Archers (2000) Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework

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Of course teachers still expressed difficulty in engaging some reluctant students in

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willingness to enter dialogue is important to the maintenance of personal relationships

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Internet And Web Information Systems. Retrieved from

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