KNOWLEDGE MOBILIZATION

EXPLORATION OF INTERPERSONAL
RELATIONSHIP DEVELOPMENT:
Finding the key to student engagement in blended delivery courses
Melanie Peacock, PhD

Mount Royal University

Department of General Management, Human Resources and Aviation

403-440-6383

Associate Professor

Bissett School of Business

mpeacock@mtroyal.ca

Blended delivery of information involves a combination of face-to-face and online activities to create a unique learning environment with its own
opportunities and challenges. While the interest and demand for this type of curriculum is increasing, the complexities of this learning context and
keeping students engaged within it are not fully understood. This research highlights how instructors and adult learners interact with one another and
develop interpersonal relationships in post-secondary through blended delivery learning environments and how this may be used to enhance student
engagement.

Methodology
Informed by social interdependence theory, this qualitative research drew
upon interpretive phenomenology. Through 12 interviews, collective lived
experiences were revealed to highlight synergies that can be created
through key interpersonal relationship development - themes of foundation,
conversation, mutuality and independence - which in turn, promote deeper
student engagement.

Main Findings

Corresponding Data

Synergistic interpersonal elements and dynamics between adult learners
and instructors illuminate how learning processes and interpersonal
exchanges can be enacted to enhance student engagement in an
undergraduate post-secondary, blended delivery environment, thereby
providing considerations for enhancing educational praxis.

Social Interdependence Theory: The theory that the structure of goals
determines an individual interactions and particular outcomes.
Phenomenology: The study of structures of experience of
consciousness as experienced from the first-person point of view.
12 interviews conducted.
Blended delivery is a combination of face-to-face and online activities
to create a distinct learning environment.

INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIP DEVELOPMENT THEMES

Enthusiasm

Trust

Comfort

Positive
Regard

Socialization

Self-Disclosure

Foundation

Mutuality

Expression

Responsibility

Response

Solitude

Conversation

Independence

Implications

Where from here?

Interpersonal Relationship Development (IRD) between students and
instructors in blended delivery settings is important to enhance student
engagement. In order for this to occur, IRD themes must complement
each other and when this does not occur (i.e. intersection between themes
present contradictions or cannot be reconciled) student engagement
diminishes. Further, synergies created through intersections between
IRD themes enhance instructors’ engagement with the blended delivery
curriculum and students thereby highlighting the impact that IRD between
instructors and students has on engagement.

This study identified the following opportunities for ongoing research:
1.

How face-to-face exchanges may be structured within a blended
delivery context,

2.

Composition of students (i.e. class size and diversity of learners –
culture, gender, disabilities) and the impact of this on interpersonal
relationship development between students and instructors in
blended delivery settings

3.

Assessment of social interdependence capabilities of instructors and
students