Post-pandemic teaching will ask us to focus on our classroom culture and how we connect with our students. Online learning culture is a specific culture found within the academic framework of higher education. Terms such as independent learning, self-efficacy, and self-identity are frequently associated with online learning culture. These terms align with individualistic cultural norms and the struggle of ethnically diverse learners who identify with communal cultural norms to find a place. Ethnic culture influences social and learning experiences (Aronson & Laughter, 2016; Booker et al., 2016; Campbell, 2015). This article presents a model of cultural presence to be used in conjunction with the community of inquiry (CoI) framework in online spaces.
Connections Are Everything: Putting Relationships at the Heart of Higher Ed
As academic leaders, we are under so much pressure to deliver—enrollment targets, strategic plans, graduation rates, AI policies, and on and on—that we can lose sight of what our students