A Review on the Role of Leadership in Online Learning Environment

among Students

Fatimah Hishamuddin and Nurbiha A. Shukor

School of Education Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor, Malaysia

Keywords: Leadership, Online Learning, Virtual Learning, Online Leaders.

Abstract: Fostering students' leadership skills is a challenge and a commitment, both personally and professionally.

People often overlook leadership skills in education because people perceived that leadership skills should be

acquired by someone who has a specific role as a leader. Other than nurturing leadership traditionally or face

to face, it can be nurtured online. In online learning, leadership can emerge among members without appointed

as official leaders. This study aims to explore the role of leadership in an online learning environment. The

literature searched was carried out using online databases such as Science Direct, Scopus, Emerald, IEEE

Xplore, Taylor and Francis and Wiley Online Library. Findings from the literature review show leadership

plays a role in the online learning environment by improving behavioural engagement between members,

enhancing knowledge sharing, improving the individual learning experience and enhancing positive emotions

and motivations. Future research should focus on identifying the effect of leadership on multi-dimensional

aspects of online learning such as learning engagement (behavioural, cognitive and emotions) as well as

students’ learning performance.

1 INTRODUCTION

Online learning is implemented in various

educational fields such as professional development

(Simsek, 2015), teacher education (Saparova et al.,

2014) and students' activities in learning (Barak et al.,

2016). Several researchers discussed the advantages

of online learning, such as the ability to interact

asynchronously (Aljeraisy et al., 2015; Broadbent,

2017) where students can share their experiences and

ideas in the class leads them to a better understanding.

They are able to share their knowledge anytime and

anywhere without physically meeting each other.

More importantly, online learning allows

interaction in a group to occur more efficiently. This

empowers discussion to be carried out online to

facilitate students to inquire and offer an explanation

and help, exchange, analyze or evaluate their

understanding, and share their ideas on learning

contents from various perspectives for formulating

knowledge in their learning processes (Dunlap, 2005;

King et al., 1998).

As web technologies have been widely used to

support remote communications and collaborations,

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9587-8929

research on team leadership has been extended to

these virtual spaces, such as virtual teams. Leadership

roles in virtual teams are demonstrated through

engaging in online activities and interaction through

computer mediated communication (Huang et al.,

2010). In online learning, shared leadership occur

when the leadership is distributed among team

members and is characterized by sharing leadership

roles (Carte et al., 2006). Leadership in online

learning becomes essential as a leader can take charge

by identifying and supporting learning, structuring

the social environment and manage the external

demands (Leithwood et al., 2004). Leadership skills

require students to be proficient in handling and

managing their group and online learning

environment able to highlight students’ leadership

roles (Cheng et al., 2019).

However, nurturing leadership is hardly a concern

among teachers and educators in online learning

despite being an essential skill for successful learning

collaboration (Huang et al., 2010). This is because

many regard leadership skills as a trait that one

develops over time and should be naturally nurtured

rather than shaped by design during learning (Yukl,

Hishamuddin, F. and Shukor, N.

A Review on the Role of Leadership in Online Learning Environment among Students.

DOI: 10.5220/0010485505110516

In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2021) - Volume 1, pages 511-516

ISBN: 978-989-758-502-9

511

2013). Moreover, individuals slowly develop their

leadership skills during their experience in the

workplace (Beachum & Dentith, 2004).

Due to these reasons, this study seeks to better

understand the importance of leadership in learning

particularly online where physical absence could

further enhance the challenge of learning online. The

following is the research question is investigated in

this study:

Research Question: How leadership plays a role

among students learning online?

2 METHODOLOGY

To fulfil the research objectives, we limited the search

studies related to leadership in online learning. The

inclusion criteria in this study include virtual

learning, leadership among learners and focused on

the role of leadership in online learning that

influences the learners. On the other hand, this study

excluded any articles not related to the learners'

leadership. The articles' screening for inclusion is

based on the review of abstracts and followed by a

full-text review.

Several databases search have been performed

through Scopus, ScienceDirect, Emerald, IEEE

Xplore, Taylor and Francis as well as Wiley Online

Library to search articles published from 2010-2020

and the publication language is English.. The

following keywords were used to search the

publications: leadership & online learning, leadership

& virtual learning, emergence leader, & online

learning and online leaders. Table 1 shows the

database source, initial and final numbers of articles

selected from the respective database.

Table 1: Distribution of papers by Online Database.

Database Candidates Selection

Sco

us 22 5

Science Direct 12 2

IEEE X

lore 10 2

Taylor and Francis 10 3

Emeral

9 0

Wile

5 1

Total 68 13

3 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

The search has produced 68 articles but only 13

articles were found relevant to answer the research

questions for this study. Table 2 shows the role of

leadership in online learning online.

Table 2: Studies of leadership in online learning.

Author

(Year)

Research

Purpose

Sample

Role of

leadership in

online learning

Flammia et

al. (2010)

To examine the

leadership roles in

the virtual team

Higher

education

studen

Establish

positive team

process

Gressick and

Derry (2010)

To determine the

effect of the

distributed

leadership to the

group

performance

Maths and

science teacher

Influence

motivation,

knowledge,

affect or

practices of

group members

Lee et

al.(2015)

To examine the

shared leadership

on knowledge

sharing and team

creativity

Higher

education

student

Improve

knowledge

sharing and team

creativity

Gallego-

Arrufat et al.

(2015)

To examine the

leadership role in

the virtual settings

Secondary

school student

Influences the

group's

motivation and

enhanced the

construction of

knowledge.

Lu and Xie

(2018)

To examine

leadership styles

that can influence

collaboration

experience and

individual

performance

Higher

education

student

Establish

teamwork to

complete the

task

Cheng et al.

(2019)

To examine group

leadership in

online

collaborative

learning

Higher

education

student

Promote the

construction of

knowledge,

Selcuk et al.

(2019)

To examine the

effect of peer

leadership in web-

based

collaborative

High school

student

Improve self-

planning in

learning, self-

confidence and

motivation

Xie et al.

(2019)

To examine the

relationship

between

perceived

leadership, group

cohesion, online

engagement, self-

regulation and

learning outcomes

Higher-

education

student

Influence

student's self-

regulation and

behavioural

engagement

Chen et al.

(2020)

To investigate the

impact of an

assigned

leadership role on

learner's

participation and

learning

experience in an

online

collaborative

learning

Higher

education

student

Increased

learning

participation

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Table 2: Studies of leadership in online learning. (cont.)

Author

(Year)

Research

Purpose

Sample

Role of

leadership in

online learning

Durnalı

(2020)

To examine the

self-leadership

and self-directed

learning in an

online learning

environmen

Higher-

education

student

Discipline in

learning and

resulted in better

learning

outcomes

Kim, Lee, et

al. (2020)

To examine

students'

leadership style in

an online learning

environmen

Graduate-level

online course

student

Increased

positive feelings

between peers

and motivation

Kim, Wang,

et al. (2020)

To identify the

relationship

between learning

leaders and

engagement in an

online learning

environmen

Graduate-level

online course

student

Invest in the

cognitive effort,

higher

engagement and

positive

emotions

Yilmaz et al.

(2020)

To examine the

effect of vertical

and shared

leadership on self-

regulated learning

skills, motivation

and group

collaboration

process

Elementary

school student

Fostering a sense

of belonging and

enhanced

behavioural

engagement

among members

Figure 1: Number of studies related to the role of leadership

in online learning.

From the 13 articles reviewed, we were able to

identify the role of leadership in an online learning

environment. Figure 1 shows a graph related to the

number of studies that show the role of leadership that

can influence behavioural engagement, cognitive

development, students learning experience and

emotions and motivations in online learning.

From the graph, we can conclude that most studies

show that leadership in online learning can affect

behavioural engagement, cognitive development and

emotions and motivations. Behavioural engagement

and cognitive development are factors in achieving

success in the online learning environment (Tu &

Corry, 2003) by actively participate during learning

and sharing their knowledge. Meanwhile, positive

emotions and motivation encourage learners to

engage in their learning (Du et al., 2016). Leadership

increase learners’ confidence and keep students

motivated as well as expressing their emotions

rationally. Students’ learning experience is the least

factor because in online learning, group work is

essential. Thus, other than individuals goal, during

online learning, learners tend to achieve group goals.

Behavioural engagement is often viewed as the

participation of learners in learning. Research

conducted by Flammia et al. (2010) shows leadership

can improve behavioural engagement by establishing

positive team processes. The positive team processes

are communication among team members, members

keep track of each other and encourage members to

participate. Such roles show learners actively

participate during learning. Through active

participation, learners able to share leadership roles in

a group that can help them distribute responsibility

and workload equally (Yilmaz et al., 2020). The

distribution of the workload in a group is important to

ensure they achieved the goals of the group. Thus,

leadership in online helps team members improve

their engagement during learning as well as success

in completing group tasks.

Furthermore, leadership can also benefit students'

cognitive development. This is based on the study

conducted by Gressick and Derry (2010), Lee et

al.(2015), Gallego-Arrufat et al. (2015), Cheng et al.

(2019) and Kim, Wang et al. (2020) which stated that

leadership was able to enhance students construction

of knowledge and sharing of knowledge between

members. The construction of knowledge occurs

when team members brainstorming their various

ideas, accept the same opinions, discuss the issues

and conclude their ideas. Leadership can play a

critical role in promoting the process of knowledge

construction and sharing (Singh, 2020). Furthermore,

the process of knowledge building and sharing in a

group can contribute to better group learning

performance.

A Review on the Role of Leadership in Online Learning Environment among Students

513

Other than benefiting students working in a group,

leadership also helps individual students. According

to Selcuk et al. (2019), Xie et al. (2019) and Durnalı

(2020), possessing leadership roles in online learning

improves individual learning experience where it

establishes students to plan, manage and reflect on

their own learning. As a result, they improved their

self-regulation, self-confidence and self-directed

learning. Besides, students who are able to emerge

their leadership during online learning can develop

skills such as problem solving, awareness, research

and negotiation (Bahçelerli et al., 2017). Therefore,

such skills make them able to manage their own

learning very well and improve their learning in the

future.

Other benefits of leadership in online learning as

stated by Gressick & Derry (2010), Gallego-Arrufat

et al. (2015), Selcuk et al. (2019), Kim, Lee, et al.

(2020) and Kim, Wang, et al. (2020) is enhanced

positive emotions and motivations. Leadership role

help learners to identify other members problem in

learning and ensure they keep motivated.

Furthermore, leadership helps learners to express

their emotions during learning. Thus, by expressing

emotions, they able to keep motivated during learning

and foster the feeling of a sense of belonging in a

group (Hernández-Sellés et al., 2019). When learners

felt a sense of belonging in a group, they will keep

their engagement and responsibility in a group to

ensure they achieved their group goals.

4 CONCLUSION

In conclusion, this review helps the researcher

identify the role of leadership in online learning.

Besides nurturing leadership face to face, we can also

foster leadership online because leadership in online

learning can be emerged and shared among group

members. Possessing leadership roles in learning

benefits not only the group but also individuals.

However, leadership in online is often overlooked

because learners are at different places and

communicate only through computer-mediated

communications.

According to Curtis & Lawson (2001), ‘natural

leaders’ emerged in a group when they contribute

more in virtual communications. Such contributions

related to managing group work, initiating activities

and providing assistance and feedback. Nevertheless,

studies have shown that leadership improves

behavioural engagement, cognitive development,

individual learning experience as well as positive

emotions and motivation in online learning. A study

conducted by Kim, Wang, et al. (2020) supports that

learners who exemplify leadership appear to show

more cognitive efforts, engage in a continuous online

discussion, show their positive and negative emotions

more often, and score higher at the end of semesters.

Therefore, with the benefits of leadership in online

learning, we can nurture leadership online rather than

face-to-face or traditional.

5 FUTURE SUGGESTIONS

Leadership has been proven to play various important

roles in online learning but studies on nurturing

leadership skills during learning online remain scarce

where the emphasis is placed on improving students’

learning performance. Further studies should be

carried out to identify the effect of leadership on

multi-dimensional aspects of online learning such as

learning engagement (behavioural, cognitive,

emotional) as well as learning performance.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to thank the Universiti

Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and Ministry of

Education (MoE) Malaysia for their support in

making this project possible.

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