Examining the instructor-student collaborative partnership in an online learning community course

Education is under a radical transformation in the current innovation-driven knowledge age. The instructor-student collaborative partnership has the potential to transform education from traditional instructor-directed, transmissive teaching to active, participatory student-centered learning. However, relevant inquiry indicates the conceptual, analytical, and practical gaps on the instructor-student collaborative partnership. This study aims to conceptualize, analyze, and foster the instructor-student collaborative partnership in higher education contexts. To achieve this purpose, we empirically investigate the instructor-student collaborative partnership in an online course where the instructor uses a learning-community approach to foster learning. Using mixed methods, we examine the instructor-student collaborative partnership from the participation frequency, engagement move, and participant perception perspectives. Results show that the instructor and students not only actively participate in learning, instruction, and social environment building processes, but also maintain mutual interactions, communications, and actions to construct knowledge, to design and facilitate discussions, and to build a social learning environment. In addition, most participants perceive a sense of an online learning community in this online course. Based on the results, we provide theoretical, analytical, and pedagogical implications to advance the theory, analysis, and practice of the instructor-student collaborative partnership.