When Song, Kim, and Luo (2016) conducted their research into the role of teacher disclosure in the teacher-student relationship in online classes, they conducted their work in a mid-western American university, surveying 534 undergraduate students. They demonstrate by citing previous research that it is well understood in education that the teacher-student relationship is an important factor in student success. To acquire accurate data for their analysis, they selected one aspect of teacher interpersonal communication; self-disclosure, and to obtain data regarding learning they focused on two dependent variables; the perceived knowledge gain and class satisfaction of the students. They used an identical questionnaire for face-to-face (FtF) learners as they did with online learners in order to compare the two environments in a compatible manner. To further strengthen the robustness of the data they were seeking, participants were recruited from only large introductory communication courses. Age was included as the control variable.
The first survey was conducted with a focus on face-to-face learning, and they note that among the survey respondents there were more females than males with the ratio being approximately 70% females. The second survey was conducted a semester later and focused on online learners. The same survey was administered to the online learners (this time the female percentage was only 55) a semester later. The sample groups were comprised of different students so as to avoid test sensitization. Most students in the sample had taken both online and FtF classes at the college where the study took place, allowing researchers to make systematic comparisons of the two environments.
Findings of their study revealed that the impact of teacher self-disclosure on teacher-student relationship is stronger in online classes as compared to face-to-face classes. They assert that it has a higher implication in the online environment because there are reduced cues is the remote environment that facilitate easy and natural self-disclosure. Their statement “online environments [that] may preclude teachers from revealing even basic information such as demographics (e.g., age, ethnicity), voice or personality, which can be readily available in FtF classes” (p. 441) indicates that no video lectures are factored in to their definition of online learning, neither in the form of flipped classroom pre-recorded lectures, nor through video conferencing applications such as Skype or Zoom. They also explicitly stated that their data showed that teachers disclose themselves significantly less online than they do in the FtF classroom.
This research was novel in that the majority of previous research on topics of relationships in the online environment was completed using applications whose main purpose was the forming of relationships (social networking sites or dating sites). As online classes are not generally centered around the building of relationships, there was a gap in the research that Song et al. have begun to fill in with this study.
Their study suggests that teachers should be mindful of the absence of their personal self-disclosure in the online classroom in order that they take deliberate steps to include this critical piece of human interaction when instructing in the online environment. They do not suggest what type of information should be revealed in order to facilitate this disclosure and subsequent relationship improvement. They also acknowledge that this area is one that requires further study.
References
Song, H., Kim, J., & Luo, W. (2016). Teacher–student relationship in online classes: A role of teacher self-disclosure. Computers in Human Behavior, 54, 436–443. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.07.037