Perceptions of psychological safety in healthcare professionals’ online learner-learner interactions

Research in computer-supported collaborative learning has explored various ways to support learner-learner interaction as healthcare professionals engage in online formats. While studies have explored various socio-emotional learning outcomes, learners’ psychological safety has yet to be explored as healthcare professionals engage in collaborative problem-solving. To address this gap, the qualitative study employed semi-structured interviews to understand occupational therapy students’ (N = 10) perceptions of psychological safety as they engaged in an online learning class. The resulting themes of this study described the feelings associated with different forms of interactions requiring psychological safety: (a) being vulnerable, (b) fear of being misunderstood, (c) need to protect/protection, and (d) group cohesion. The findings have implications for online learner-learner interactions and computer-supported collaborative learning. For example, learners discussed how the perceived permanence of online learning lead to a sense of self-preservation and reticence to discuss the ill-structured and potentially controversial nature of complex problems. Additional aspects of psychological safety in online learning highlighted the importance of shared experiences, learning from failure, and community building.