Author(s)

Ronit Hesrcu-Kluska

Department of Natural Science and Environmental Education, ORANIM Academic College of Education, Tivon, Israel.

We live in an online computerized world; the online environment reaches every part of the modern life and therefore studying and learning as well. As the concept of learning in an online environment increasing, some questions are raising: Does online learning change the learner’s interaction? Does online learning change the learner- facilitator interaction? This Autoethnography study is trying to shed some light on these two types of relations, from an individual learner point of view. The study raises the need to pay attention to the interactions between learners and the learners-teacher/facilitator as an online course being planned and pay attention to these interactions as the online course develops, especially at learning in a collaborative learning group. That type of learning requires an interaction between the students, though online learning seems to ignore the need for learners’ collaboration. Moreover, the interaction between learners and the facilitator in an online course often attend to a more technical point of view. This Autoethnography study shows that although we live in a computerized world, learning in an online environment is not self-evident, and we need to thoroughly consider how online courses should be built and whether they can fully replace traditional courses. In addition, an indirect finding emerged in this study, which is the complexity of the online student-facilitator interaction from the educational-pedagogical point of view. Since this study is autoethnographic it reflects an individual learner’s perspective, allowing to examine these interactions through particular lens. Therefore, each participator may reach different findings regarding his or her personal experience as a learner in an online learning environment.

Collaborative Learning, Online Learning, Distance Learning, Autoethnography

Hesrcu-Kluska, R. (2019) The Interaction between Learners and Learner-Facilitator in an Online Learning Environment. Creative Education, 10, 1713-1730. doi: 10.4236/ce.2019.107122.