Learners’ reflexivity and an e-learning community

The experiences of Chinese learners on two e-learning programmes in China were investigated, focusing particularly on the formation of learning communities. Data were collected using a range of instruments to access the learners’ perspectives in depth and detail. Archer’s account of reflexivity as the mediating power between structure and agency is applied to understanding how learners succeeded in one programme in forming a learning community, whereas little evidence was found of the emergence of learning community in the other case.