Problems and benefits of class web discussions for college students

Eugene Matusov, University of Delaware

Renee Hayes, University of Delaware

Mary Jane Pluta, University of Delaware

Asynchronous out-of-class telecommunication attracts growing interest among educators as access to computer hardware and client and designing software become increasingly available for undergraduate college students and instructors. The new type of communication, previously unavailable for education, promises new educational opportunities. Class web discussion can provide alternative ways of students’ participation in class, improve students’ writing skills, make instruction more student-centered, and so forth. However, potential and real problems and expenses of use telecommunication for instruction. Weekly use of computers connected to the Internet may disrupt students’ routines and put new demands on the students and the instructor. There are possibilities for deterioration of web discussions and their losing interactive and/or pedagogical qualities. Probably because of its novelty, there is little known about benefits, expenses, and problems associated with out-of-class use of discussion webs. During the workshop, we want to share preliminary findings from our research aimed to contribute to knowledge about use of the class web discussions for undergraduate education.

         The first author has used out-of-class web discussions since 1996 for total of 14 undergraduate classes in psychology and education in three universities and 2 graduate classes. The second author has started using the webs since 1998 for 2 undergraduate classes. The third author experienced class web discussion as an undergraduate student in one of classes run by the first author. As our data, we use students’ spontaneous comments and discussions on the class webs, their feedback on classes where discussion webs were used, surveys and interviews of students and instructors using discussion webs, instructors’ observations, and, systematic coding of one class web discussions. The class that was chosen for coding was average in regard to students’ evaluations of the class across other similar classes that the first author taught. In our coding, we focus on the following questions addressing the general issue of whether out-of-class discussion webs can contribute to building a community of learners on an academic subject:

·      Do web’s topics focus on academic educational issues central to the course?

·      Does the web allow students to bring and to integrate in-class experience with out-of-class experience?

·      Do the students use the web both to define and to address problems relevant to the course?

·      Do students both support and challenge statements of other students?

·      Are the students able to both initiate topics and elicit responses on the web?

·      Are students motivated beyond the extrinsic motivation of course requirements to participate in the web discussions?

Our preliminary analysis of the data suggests positive answers to all questions.

         Analysis of students’ and instructors’ comments about class web discussions allow us to extract several expenses and demands of this new pedagogical tool on the participants:

·      Weekly checking a computer with Internet connection;

·      Spending time and efforts on reading and responding to web postings (about 4 hours per week);

·      Occasional frustration with technology that does not work appropriately or not friendly;

·      Occasional frustration with the other participants who do not reply to the author’s posting;

·      Occasional frustration with not knowing what to write on the web;

·      Being comfortable with expressing yourself in writing;

·      Extensive reading from a computer monitor;

·      Skillful typing on computer;

·      Aligning and relating your own ideas with postings by others;

·      Seeing important threads across many messages posted in different time by different authors under different subject (for the instructor).

We found several factors that can potentially contribute to inhibition of web discussion interactivity:

·      Formal quality judgments of students’ postings (e.g., spelling, organization, originality, grading);

·      Instructor’s firm thematic control reducing web discussions to an “assignment board” where the instructor raises questions and the students reply to them without replying (and reading) other students’ postings;

·      Participants’ not checking web systematically;

·      Participants’ not reading all postings;

·      Systematic no (or very few) replies to author’s initiations;

·      Silencing (i.e., a way of reply that make further participation uncomfortable or unwelcome);

With regard to pedagogical quality, we extracted several concerns expressed by the instructors using web discussions in their classes:

·      Lack of participants’ engagement in each other’s postings (“collective monologue”);

·      Lack of thematic foci core to the course;

·      Lack of in-depth discussions of important topics (i.e., not bringing alternative views, not knowing how to respectfully disagree, not knowing how to support and appreciate the opponent; not going beyond opinions; not supporting a position with evidence and reference);

·      Lack of instructor’s guidance and control of web discussions;

·      Lack of development and a sense of conclusion for many web discussion threads.