Title: Using chat as a complement to discussion board in small-group online seminars: How is student participation affected?

Authors: Stefan Hrastinski

Addresses: Department of Informatics, Jonkoping International Business School, Box 1026, Jonkoping SE-551 11, Sweden

Abstract: This paper examines how the use of synchronous chat, as a complement to asynchronous discussion board, affects participation in small-group online seminars. Questionnaires and interviews were used to study perceived social networks and students| sense of participation while electronic logs were used to analyse the interactions in the seminars. All measures indicate that the level of student participation was higher in the synchronous seminars. Two explanations were proposed. Firstly, the students felt that they worked together in the synchronous seminars. Secondly, there seemed to be too few students to get discussions started in the asynchronous setting. Moreover, some students dominated the asynchronous discussions while others dominated the synchronous discussions, which imply that combining asynchronous and synchronous media may enhance participation. It was also reflected on the consequence of culture on participation in the two types of seminars.

Keywords: social networks; computer-mediated communication; CMC; student participation; online seminars; online education; small group seminars; synchronous chat; culture; e-learning; online learning.

DOI: 10.1504/IJKL.2007.016707

International Journal of Knowledge and Learning, 2007 Vol.3 No.4/5, pp.483 - 500

Published online: 17 Jan 2008 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article