What's Missing? How Interpersonal Communication Changes During Online Learning

Abstract

During the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia, all communication activities have been carried out mostly through CMC, including online learning that students must experience. This situation brings big changes in the communication process between lecturers and students and vice versa. This paper aims to see how interpersonal communication changes in the online lecture process and what elements of interpersonal communication are lost with technology in online learning. The data collection method in this study was to conduct Focus Group Discussions on Sociology students at the Universitas Negeri Malang. 6 students were involved in the FGD with the criteria for students above the 2019 class who had experienced face-to-face and online lectures. Primary data was obtained through active observation of Sociology Department lecturers. This study indicates that many dimensions of interpersonal communication are missing in online lectures, such as the loss of empathy between students due to the absence of face-to-face communication and miss communication in online lectures, which causes interpersonal communication not to work effectively. Furthermore, Interpersonal communication cannot be established properly if the lecturer does not have high technological skills. It can then affect the spirit of student learning in online lectures.
 
 
 Keywords: higher education, ICT skills, interpersonal communication, online learning

Students’ experience of interpersonal interactions quality in e-Learning: A qualitative research

“…Learner-content interaction is the capability to access and interact with information/content [ 9 ]. Interaction with students is one of the most important responsibilities of teachers, both in traditional curriculum and in online courses.…”

“…When the teacher gives a lecture and the students listen, sending and receiving messages occur, resulting in sufficient communication. Effective communication is undoubtedly dependent not only on messages but also on specific characteristics in which interpersonal communication can be effective [ 9 ]. Learner-learner interaction includes the interaction of learners with each other and the creation of a learning community.…”

Communication as a prerequisite for forming online learning communities: a case study

“…It is widely accepted the assumption that through the use of technological means for communication, whether they are synchronous or asynchronous, some elements of nonverbal communication are lost to varying degrees. (Anzari & Pratiwi, 2021;Stodel, et. al.…”

Takım Çalışmasını Öğretmek: Mühendislik Öğrencileri ile Online Teknik Yazma Dersleri

“…Chadha (2018) also found that online collaboration in courses could "enhanc[e] student deliberative performance" in politics courses and could further "be used to complement a variety of disciplines" (p. 1), in which, unlike face-to-face class environments, all students are required to participate in online environments, which means that students need to develop skills to collaborate productively with their peers despite their personal differences. Although online collaboration can have some advantages, such as flexibility, many dimensions of interpersonal communication may be missing in online classes, such as the loss of empathy between students due to the absence of face-to-face communication, which causes interpersonal communication not to work effectively (Putri Anzari & Pratiwi, 2021). For example, it may lead to some obstacles regarding interpersonal skills and relationships, given that instructors in online classes may feel that their connection with students is limited, without much energy transfer that happens more naturally in the face-to-face classroom, such as feeling less support because of the physical disconnection with the classmates and teachers; lack of a sense of community, body language or someone's energy (see Bazylak & Weiss, 2017;Davis et al, 2019;Pacansky-Brock, 2016).…”