Photographic Images as an Interactive Online Teaching Technology: Creating Online Communities

Creating a sense of community in the online classroom is a challenge for educators who teach via the Internet. There is a growing body of literature supporting the importance of the community construct in online courses (Liu, Magjuka, Curtis, & Lee, 2007). Thus, educators are challenged to develop and implement innovative teaching technologies that help create virtual communities. The purpose of this exploratory research project was to document and analyze the students’ perceptions of an original interactive teaching technology called photovoice (PV) (Wang, & Burris, 1997). PV was trialed as a teaching strategy in a graduate course on change management. Following the completion of the course, qualitative data was collected from students regarding their experiences with PV. Three key themes emerged from the data: (a) support for course engagement, (b) enhancement of the learning environment, and (c) development of social connectedness. These findings are discussed within the context of an online learning community as described by Rovai (2002a) and the Community of Inquiry Model proposed by Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2000). Finally, research questions that arise from this study are outlined.