A synthesis of key concepts and literature
A sense of belonging (SoB) is a recognised and valued concept in education, associated with increased student attainment, improved learner satisfaction and lowered attrition rates (O’Keefe, 2013). Widely accepted as a key indicator of and contributing factor to successful social integration within educational contexts (Tinto, 1993), a ‘sense of belonging’ is supported and developed through perceived and experienced feelings of social support, connectedness, and ‘mattering’ (Strayhorn, 2012). Some scholars, including the aforementioned, assert that learners are unable to fulfil to their full personal potential the academic and wider developmental opportunities offered through higher education without acquiring a SoB early in their engagement. Learners with a SoB are usually more motivated, more engaged with their studies and, reflecting the link between belonging and identity, have a strong belief that they can and will achieve (Matheson & Sutcliffe, 2017; Meehan & Howells, 2018). It is widely accepted nowadays that a SoB should be generated purposefully in order to address learners’ well-documented feelings of isolation, marginalisation, alienation and loneliness. Researchers (especially those in the US, such as Ostermann (2000), and Freeman et al. (2007)), have reported findings for campus-based learners confirming a link between SoB and improved academic engagement and achievement, heightened self-confidence and self-efficacy.
These outcomes may also be the experience of learners in any online learning environment, and indeed are desirable for them. However, online learning differs significantly from traditional classroom-based learning. The digital learning space is not contained within walls, and defined seating arrangements are replaced by informal discussion fora brought electronically to the learners’ personal spaces. Academic staff are not always present in person, with inputs now commonly offered as pre-recorded inputs on video. Enrolment, course choice and assignments are all processed digitally. In particular, the formal and informal face-to-face contacts with peers and tutors, which have been found to contribute so much to the development of relationships on campus on which a sense of belonging is founded (Simpson, 2003; Strayhorn, 2012; Tinto, 1993;), are rare and not as naturally occurring online. This raises a critical issue concerning the availability and facilitation of equivalent kinds of formal and informal interactions in the online context (Martinez, 2003; Muse, 2003; Thomas et al, 2014). Thus online learning, especially in the initial stages, calls upon learners (and particularly those new to online study) to be orientated towards and prepared for handling academic procedure and forms of engagement with peers, tutors and resources in new ways, including learning to study online and understanding the nature and challenges of ‘being’ and ‘belonging’ online.3. Effects of Sense of Belonging in campus-based provision
3.2. Student retention
In the United Kingdom, the lead author of an extensive research project that involved 22 higher educational institutions concluded that sense of belonging was a key factor in student retention. Thomas (2012) underlined the need for structured formal opportunities for participation to provide a SoB: “the importance of students having a strong sense of belonging in HE, which is the result of engagement…is most effectively nurtured through mainstream activities with an overt academic purpose that all students participate in.” (p.12).
Hurtado & Carter’s (1997) work offered a holistic approach to understanding student withdrawal, suggesting that learner persistence was a joint responsibility of the learner and the institution, and supported through the intersection of individual and institutional responsibility, commitment and action. Subsequent researchers have borne this out, consistently linking SoB with improved student attainment, increased learner satisfaction and persistence (Hausmann et al., 2009; Locks et al.,2008; Vaccaro et al., 2015), with Hoffman et al. (2002-2003) reporting that “the greater a student’s sense of belonging to the university, the greater is his or her commitment to that institution … and the more likely it is that he or she will remain” (p.228). Significant work in the United States has also noted the particular importance of SoB for learners who perceive themselves to be marginal to campus life and ‘non-traditional’ according to class, race, ethnicity, sexual identity, income and disability (Hausmann et al., 2009; Johnson et al., 2007; Locks et al., 2008; Vaccaro & Newman, 2017).
Strayhorn’s (2012) work in relation to college students’ sense of belonging echoes in much of the literature in concluding that, if a SoB is not developed, this loss until resolved will impede the learners’ ability to attend to the task at hand (studying and fulfilling the goals of higher education).