Trust

I recently hired a personal trainer at the gym I go to. The winter this year in upstate New York was not kind to me. A total snowfall of 105″ for the season meant fewer trips to the gym and more trips to the refrigerator. : ))[what is the emoticon for double chin?) ( This is a picture of two of my children atop a snow bank. Note the height of the telephone poles in the background!)

My trainer at the gym, John, is a soft-spoken guy with an organic vibe an a wicked sense of humor- a nice mix for a personal trainer. He's got some other traits of a personal trainer - he can be a bit of a drill sergeant, he pushes me to my limit by waiting until I'm about ready to punch him in the face to crack a joke, and he counts to twelve via the number 15.

The training John provides is individualized and delivered one-on-one, face-to-face. But what makes him really good is trust.

Is it more difficult to build trust online? What about building trust in online communities within a corporation? If company information within the organization normally requires some sort of approval (manager, legal, corporate, etc.) you'll probably have a tougher time building trust. The connections online (and connections face-to-face) flourish when there is trust. How is this accomplished online? How is trust earned in online environments? If I analyze the relationship with my personal trainer and try to apply elements to an online community I'd want to convey:

• reliability (he's alway there when I get there)
• openness (he doesn't say only what has been "approved")
• transparency (he doesn't hide the nature of our relationship)
• toughness (he doesn't retreat when times are tough)
• privacy (he doesn't share information that I don't want him to)
• helpfulness (he answers my questions)
• truthfulness (he doesn't BS me)
• education (he provides me with resources, instruction, and coaching)

In an online environment the 'real person' element is important. Virtual classrooms always felt more 'real' to me when there was video or at least a photo of the attendees. Attending to technical issues was a factor in building trust. My trainer wouldn't leave me to figure out how to use the equipment on my own.

Here's another interesting consideration. Kristen Hanson and Fransen Clem (in Bonk, 2006) talk about the dynamics of blending instruction and the level of interpersonal trust required in online communities. They found "the development of trust in the blended learning modules to be related to the type of content being taught and the timing of the face-to-face event." They found that "when people know there is a classroom experience planned later in the program, they might withhold trust until they meet each other face-to-face." This led the researchers to wonder if trust was more closely linked with course content or the expectation of meeting. The lesson they drew from their finding was that "trust may not automatically develop online whan a follow-up face-to-face event is planned; instead it is likely affected by other factors. A blended design may ultimately deepen trust in a community because online activities have the potential to extend relationships after face-to-face sessions." (they noted this requires further study).

Gilly Salmon and Naomi Lawless (in Bonk, 2006) also discussed trust in the online environment. "While some scholars caution that this [lack of social presence online vs. f2f] can significantly retard the development of group relationships, we find that by the end of the eighteen days in the OMC [ Online Management Challenge course], some students prove to be extremely loyal and supporting of each other. The key to developing group cohesion is the development of trust (Lawless, 2004). Like Haywood (1998), we have found that a sense of trust in online environments can be established fairly quickly if students feel that they can predict the behavior of others and that there is a commitment to the team.”

I’ve found the behavior of others in a group follows the intital exchange between the moderator/facilitator/host so trust should start there. I experienced this first hand while studying at Capella University (an online university). The end of a class was often bittersweet – bonds had been created online through mutual trust. I stay in touch with many of my former classmates…and I’ve never met them f2f. Heck, I haven’t even met my co-workers (except Bryan Chapman) at Brandon Hall Research and I’ve been working here for nearly two years! The level of trust among us is rich. That said, when I do meet my co-works at the Innovations in Learning Conference, I’m confident they will catch me when I dive into the mosh pit! (not really, I don’t think we’re having a mosh pit…but you never know.) How about a mash pit?

Reference
Bonk, C.J. (2006) The Handbook of Blended Learning: Global perspectivies, pocal designs. Pfeiffer. (see my booklist)

Haywood, M. (1998) Managing virtual teams: Practical techniques for high technology project managers. Norwood, MA: Artech Hourse.

Lawless, N.J. (2004) Managing student expectations in order to fast-track online group learning. Paper presented at European Conference on E-Learning (ECEL), Paris, France.

Tagged as: Best Practices, Blended Learning, Brandon Hall, Brandon Hall Conference, Communities, E-learning, Learning, Research, Training