Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSS] ifets discussion no. 2003-31
From: Gaye Kelly (gayekelly@EIRCOM.NET)
Date: Wed 28 May 2003 - 10:33:40 MEST
Date: Wed, 28 May 2003 09:33:40 +0100 From: Gaye Kelly <gayekelly@EIRCOM.NET> Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSS] ifets discussion no. 2003-31
Hello All
Replying 'off the cuff' to Michael's request for information about possible research into participation in on-line discussions, I am currently close to finishing a small piece of research for a Master's thesis that touches on this area. I am particularly interested in exploring the possibilities of using ICT to develop meta-cognition on adult training programmes. Amongst other tools, I initiated a closed group discussion board and invited course participants to use this forum to answer questions to reflect on how their learning was going. My research is being conducted on a cohort of unemployed adults of varied ages, backgrounds and ability.
My findings are that due to certain shortcomings in the design of discussion boards, many people find them unattractive to use for this purpose. Specifically: there is no spell-check facility. Few people are that confident in their ability to write for public viewing that they will use a discussion board to communicate (even amongst friends). Also, there is no privacy option where one could reply or start a discussion without everyone knowing who is writing (there should be the possibility of 'semi'anonymity', so that only the manager would know the id of the writer. To encourage my learners to use the board I applied all kinds of manipulation including - placing exam result there so they would have to access the board; putting assignments and useful links as well as current news about the program. As a result of comment on a previous (recent) ifets discussion, I also offered to initiate a special Certificate of completion of a Learning to Learn course to those partici!
pants who participated fully in the activities of the program. This had no discernible impact on participation rates in the discussion board. 50% of the learners preferred to use other methods such as an on-line Post Project Analysis Form, to do their reflections and evaluations.
One final interesting piece of data is that those who used the discussion board to reflect were more likely to be older and better educated. As the skills levels of the group increased and their confidence in the technology also increased, there was increased participation. We should not assume that users know how to use the technology.
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