The Lived Experiences of Graduate Students: Transforming University Education in an Online Space

Reflective of a global trend, there has been a notable increase in online learning enrolments in the Australian higher education sector. Online learning has a critical place in widening access and participation to higher education particularly for those from backgrounds historically underrepresented in Australian universities, including regional and remote students. However, both retention and completion rates for online and distance students are considerably lower in comparison with on-campus students. Among the barriers are a lack of social interaction, technical skills, costs and access to the Internet. Of all of these issues, it is the lack of social interaction that can be seen as the most severe barrier to online learning enjoyment, effectiveness and the possibility of a student taking another online class in the future. In this chapter, Di thus draws on the ‘lived experiences’ of a cohort of graduates who completed an online graduate programme through Federation University School of Education, to identify ways to improve social presence between online learners and teacher educators. After achieving ethics approval, and through a hermeneutic phenomenological lens influenced by Heidegger, she conducted in-depth, individual interviews. She sought insights into the students’ positive experiences, frustrations, barriers (both structural and individual) and challenges encountered during their online learning experiences, as well as professional practice ideas for improved learning experiences in the online environment. She analysed and interpreted the interview data using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) methodology, and the findings have deepened her understanding of online pedagogical practices and transformed her own online education practices.