Positionings, agencies and roles in an academic, virtual learning environment: A topology of learning

This paper presents a small-scale, Action Research study with a group of undergraduate students and two tutors on a dissertation module in a British university. The aim was to explore the ways students’ collaborative engagement can be facilitated in a virtual learning environment. Drawing on positioning theory, the authors explored the ways participants constructed the self and others in this virtual space: their perceptions of the rights, duties, roles and expectations of each other; their evolving identities as learners and the impact of these positionings upon their sense of personal, collective and relational agencies. They used questionnaires and interviews to examine the participants’ discourses and positionings. The virtual learning space was experienced as a predominantly relational space, where participants assumed certain dynamic positions, always in relation to each other. The findings suggest the existence of a topology of learning.