What Are the Differences in Student Participation?.
The purpose of the study was to examine how students (n = 14) participated in a web-based graduate course discussions. The focus of this examination was to analyze the interactions that occurred during synchronous (chat) and asynchronous (listserv) modes of discussions using a coding scheme developed by the researchers. During a one week period, students were randomly assigned to either a small group chat or threaded discussion. The next week, the two small groups switched forms of discussion and were given another topic question to discuss. The study is qualitative in nature in order to find out whether of the students’ participation were substantive (that is, directly related to the topic) or non-substantive (messages were not directly related to the content) in both types of discussions and these were compared by type of comment and quantified. In addition, the students were surveyed about their computer and Internet experience and skills as well as their attitudes toward the course
