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Recent research on online learning has explored the dense fabric of social presence giving us a better understanding of the rhythms of the teaching-learning exchange. Quantitative studies, especially, have concluded with calls for deeper, more intensive explorations into what happens in online learning environments (Rourke, Anderson, Garrison, & Archer, Journal of Distance Education, 14 (2), 50-71, 1999 ). In this paper, the results of an interpretive study conducted among mature university learners engaged in online study reveal learners' strong affinity to a code of online etiquette. On the demanding front lines of online learning, these learners valued and constructed ways of "being nice" to their fellow learners, creating tolerable levels of harmony and community within which to complete their studies successfully.
Dianne Conrad (Tue,) studied this question.