Online Professional Skills Workshops: Perspectives from Distance Education Graduate Students

  • Sarah Anne Gauvreau Contact North
  • Deborah Hurst Athabasca University
  • Martha Cleveland-Innes Athabasca University
  • Pamela Hawranik Athabasca University
DOI: https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v17i5.2024
Keywords: professional skills development, synchronous online workshops, distance education, online graduate student

Abstract

While many online graduate students are gaining academic and scholarly knowledge, the opportunities for students to develop and hone professional skills essential for the workplace are lacking. Given the virtual environment of distance learning, graduate students are often expected to glean professional skills such as analytical thinking, self-awareness, flexibility, team-building, and problem-solving inherently through informal means (Cleveland-Innes & Ally, 2012). The goal of this study was to evaluate the experiences of online graduate students participating in synchronous online professional skills workshops. Students attended the sessions from the various graduate programs at an online Canadian university. The discussions from the focus group held at the end of the project were used to achieve the research goals. This paper used a phenomenological lens to accomplish its research goals. The participants reported that they experienced a “sense of community” and learned skills that were not included in their academic programs.

Author Biographies

Sarah Anne Gauvreau, Contact North
Coordinator, Student Services
Deborah Hurst, Athabasca University
Deborah Hurst is acting dean and associate professor in Athabasca University’s Facultyof Business. Her scholarly background is in work and organizational studies, with a cur-rent research interest in developing collaborative work relationships in virtual environ-ments. Her work is a balance of applied and academic research, drawing from a diversebackground in pursuit of a specialization in cultural organizational change. Deborah’sresearch goal is to improve the human experience of work through a better understandingDeborah Hurst is acting dean and associate professor in Athabasca University’s Facultyof Business. Her scholarly background is in work and organizational studies, with a cur-rent research interest in developing collaborative work relationships in virtual environ-ments. Her work is a balance of applied and academic research, drawing from a diversebackground in pursuit of a specialization in cultural organizational change. Deborah’sresearch goal is to improve the human experience of work through a better understanding

Dean (Acting), associate professor
Faculty of Business

Martha Cleveland-Innes, Athabasca University
Professor and Chair
Centre for Distance Education
Pamela Hawranik, Athabasca University

Professor & Dean

Faculty of Graduate Studies

Published
2016-09-26
How to Cite
Gauvreau, S. A., Hurst, D., Cleveland-Innes, M., & Hawranik, P. (2016). Online Professional Skills Workshops: Perspectives from Distance Education Graduate Students. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 17(5). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v17i5.2024
Issue
Vol. 17 No. 5 (2016)
Section
Research Articles

Copyright (c) 2016 Sarah Anne Gauvreau, Deborah Hurst, Martha Cleveland-Innes, Pamela Hawranik

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