Digital collaborative autoethnographies: understanding the sociomateriality of students’ feelings of presence and belonging in an online university

There is a growing interest in understanding and increasing students’ feelings of presence and belonging in online higher education, while preserving learning flexibility and autonomy. ePREPER is a 3-year research project that has studied this issue from a sociomaterial perspective. Developed at an online university, the methodology was entirely digital, including a purposely designed method of collaborative autoethnographies, which is the focus of this presentation. 

Twenty pre- and postgraduate students, in four groups, participated in their autoethnographies over six weeks. After a short training, they reflected on their personal experiences, based on a series of prompts and questions, and shared their responses in a digital chat space as a story comprising one or more images (video and/or photo) alongside a text. They then discussed each other’s contributions in the same chat. It was followed by a final synchronous session facilitated by the research team to refine the preliminary analysis.

This multimedia and self-reflective approach proved helpful for the sociomaterial lens, and the slower pace of asynchronous interaction supported more intentional creations and deeper reflections. Photos and videos helped them capture daily experiences across digital and physical environments, entangled with text narratives that allowed them to express intimate dimensions such as feelings, sensations, expectations, or desires.

Complementary, group discussions helped them to build collective meanings, think about transformative ideas, and even strengthen their sense of presence and belonging in the university. However, challenges also emerged. Some students struggled with the audio/visual formats. Certain prompts and questions raised doubts and generated redundancy. And both researchers and participants faced high demands in time and involvement. 

Despite these limitations, the digital collaborative autoethnographies show strong potential to better understand the experiences of online higher education students in a meaningful manner, particularly from a sociomaterial perspective.