A case study exploring mature students' expectations and experiences of the fully online mode of learning in a higher education institution in Ireland

Today higher education is experiencing change due to major technological innovations and disruptions that offer new opportunities for engagement in teaching and learning and in supporting differing ways of accessing and enabling learning. These new technologies provide opportunities for new ways of thinking about the concept of 'place' in educational contexts, with the physical 'bricks and mortar' classroom gradually losing its monopoly as the place of learning (Nguyen, 2015) through the advancement of new technologies now offering new modes and virtual spaces for learning. It is within this context that this research study set out to explore mature students' expectations and experiences of the 'fully online' mode of learning being implemented within a higher education institution in Ireland. The Case Study research project utilised mixed methods across two phases of research to examine students' expectations of, and their experiences of engagement with fully online courses. The results indicated that students were generally satisfied with the quality of the 'pared down' online course provision and supports therein, but called for timely feedback from lecturers particularly in relation to assessment. Furthermore, the live streaming of practical sessions was not seen by some participants to be conducive to learning.Interestingly, the findings showed that students migrated from using institutional forums for communication purposes to their personal social media/social networking tools. Furthermore, there were indications that the structuring of the online content into 'live-streamed lecture sessions' and 'archived lecture sessions' was contributing to the formation of two separate communities of learning, and this warrants further investigation. The recommendations include training for lecturers on ways to enhance communication and foster communities of learning within fully online settings.