Presence and Integrity in Online Learning
A Q&A with Gardner Campbell
At their best, synchronous online courses are shared experiences, and students are fully present to boost each other's learning. But in the virtual world it takes more than webcams to get us there. Here, Gardner Campbell, an associate professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University and a career-long expert and researcher in learning science, explains his concept of integrity in online learning and how it can make your students true learning colleagues.
Mary Grush: Can you tell me why the idea of integrity is so pervasive now, in all your interactions with students and in your online teaching practice?
Gardner Campbell: Sure. I'll start with the story of how I first realized that integrity might be something that is more basic, more elemental, more foundational than I had ever quite understood — then I'll show you how I try to apply this larger understanding of integrity now in my practice as a teacher of fully online classes.
I came to VCU as a vice provost for learning innovation and student success back in 2013. As it happened, we were right in the middle of preparation for our regional accrediting body, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools-Commission on Colleges to consider reaffirmation of our accreditation. This is a 10-year cycle for us as it is for most colleges and universities in the U.S. It's a process in which colleges and universities self-organize to do a kind of peer review for each other that will have credibility.
As I parachuted into VCU in the midst of all of this, for the first time in my career I had to look very carefully at accrediting documents, in areas including curriculum, student life, graduation, retention, and more. I was now a key member of VCU's team preparing for a SACS-COC site visit during which committees from peer institutions would gather information and conduct interviews at every level of our administration, faculty, and students.
As I began to study the principles of accreditation in the SACS-COC handbook, I was intrigued and rather delighted to note that the very first principle of accreditation — section one, paragraph one — was integrity.
And I thought, well, isn't that interesting? That's the bedrock. That's the foundation. It's integrity.
That's the bedrock. That's the foundation. It's integrity.
Mary Grush: What did SACS-COC have to say about integrity?
Campbell: It's not a terribly long description, but it's very powerful. I was working from the SACS-COC 2012 version, which defines integrity as "a relationship in which all parties agree to deal honestly and openly with their constituencies and with one another." The definition is similar in the most recent documents. Honestly and openly are great adverbs. No lies and no hiding. For me, it's the basic question of: Are you what you say you are?
When you put it that way, you can see that for people at all levels of the institution, integrity is foundational in every aspect of our interactions with each other.
It is also foundational when an institution is saying that it serves a greater good and is doing everything in its power to represent itself honestly, fairly, and effectively — not just in terms of the brand or of the bottom line (even though those things are important in other ways), but in terms of whether you are what you say you are.
That principle of integrity and the way it was articulated in the accreditation process stuck with me, even long after I had left senior leadership.