Loneliness in online students with disabilities: qualitative investigation for experience, understanding and solutions.
Cultural and social implications
Distance education and online learning
Learning communities
Lifelong learning
Special needs education
Journal
International journal of educational technology in higher education
ISSN: 2365-9440
Titre abrégé: Int J Educ Technol High Educ
Pays: Switzerland
ID NLM: 9918284166106676
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
2021
2021
Historique:
received:
14
06
2021
accepted:
22
09
2021
entrez:
15
12
2021
pubmed:
16
12
2021
medline:
16
12
2021
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
Online learning has given access to education for diverse populations including students with disabilities. In our university, the ratio of students with disabilities is substantially higher in the online programmes than face-to-face. Online learning provides high accessibility though it can result in a lonely experience. Accordingly, this study aimed to appraise the first-hand experience and understanding of loneliness in online students with disabilities (OSWD), and to discuss possible solutions. Thematic analysis on semi-structured interviews attended by nine OSWD identified: 'Self-paced study can reduce stigma but cause loneliness (Theme 1)', 'Loneliness and social difficulties relate to misunderstanding of disability (Theme 2)', and 'Activities, events and staff for informal socialisation are needed (Theme 3)'. As the demand for online learning is further expanded due to the current global pandemic, our findings will be helpful for online learning institutions worldwide to establish effective strategies to reduce loneliness in OSWD. The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s41239-021-00301-x.
Identifiants
pubmed: 34909461
doi: 10.1186/s41239-021-00301-x
pii: 301
pmc: PMC8660147
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Pagination
64Informations de copyright
© The Author(s) 2021.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
Competing interestsAuthors declare no competing interests.
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