Implementation of VoiceThread in Online Aviation Education: A Pilot Program Towards Creating Community

Abstract

VoiceThread is an online multimedia and multimodal platform used by education institutions across the world. The researchers in this paper implemented VoiceThread in Aviation Education to create a sense of community and decrease feelings of student isolation when taking online courses. Participants surveyed were undergraduate students majoring in a variety of degree programs in Aviation Education. All participants were enrolled in an asynchronous online Ethics & Professional Responsibility course. Enrolled students participated in VoiceThread assignments, creating original slides, recording themselves discussing the topic in an audio and visual format, and responding to their peers with video and audio comments. The researchers analyzed quantitative Likert scale items, and qualitative open-ended questions. Participants reported feeling engaged and described the course as interactive when asked to describe their course environment. Additionally, they report feeling less isolated because of VoiceThread increasing their sense of community in the course. Finally, students were asked what challenges exist for building an online community in Aviation Education, and how instructors can further support the community in their online courses. The results indicated that students were aware of the difficulty of creating community in online courses, either due to schedule restraints, motivation and/or availability of peers, and course design limitations. Students identified VoiceThread as a good EdTech tool that helped foster community in their course and appreciated the opportunity to interact with their peers. Many students recommended that educators create an online learning environment that leaves space for community building, either in relation to the content, group work and required course activities or via informal interactions to create “outside-of-class” opportunities for students to spontaneously create their own community. Overall, the researchers were encouraged by the student responses and reiterate the need to create a sense of community in online Aviation Education courses.