Person over pedagogy: Rapport-building traits of online instructors
Abstract: This paper reports on the findings of one segment of a larger triangulated study of student views towards instructors’ rapport-building traits and practices in online learning environments. Participants were undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in courses within an educational technology program at a central Texas university. This part of the study employed a mixed-methods approach involving a Likert-item assessment of learners’ preferences and semi-structured interviews that provided more-detailed information. Findings indicated a strong preference for behavior-based traits over pedagogically-based ones. These traits loaded into the components of Social Presence, Enjoyable Interaction, and Personal Connection.