9. A REVIEW OF THE USE OF ASYNCHRONOUS E- SEMINARS IN
9.3 ISSUES THAT REQUIRE FURTHER RESEARCH
9.3.3 The Role of Student Individual Differences
Although educational psychologists maintain that teachers should acknowledge and accommodate the individuality of their students [21], this has rarely amounted to more than lip service when implementing CMC systems in educational contexts.
Only recently has the importance of considering individual differences begun to be recognized [16]. Individual differences studied so far within the CMC literature include age, gender, computer experience, communication skills and preferences, personality, and learning style. Such differences are likely to affect the use and perception of e-seminars and ultimately the learning outcome and therefore need to be considered prior to their widespread implementation. For example, it may be that the reduced social context and non-verbal cues in CMC may encourage participation for some students, while others may be unsettled by the lack of face- to-face interaction with lecturers and peers. The key research findings for a number of individual differences will now be briefly highlighted. A more thorough review of this area is provided by Wilson [16], whose paper is directed at answering the question, "what differences in students' use of CMC, if any, are determined by individual characteristics?".
Demographic factors
Age and sex are important demographic factors, although their association with e- seminar use is largely unexplored [23]. Older students may be less willing to learn new technologies; however, they do have more diverse knowledge and experience than younger students and may be able to apply these attributes to new situations.
In their study of the use of an asynchronous collaborative learning system, Morgan
& Morgan [22] found that the more mature individuals disliked online group-work and were more likely to report system-based problems.
132 The Digital University - Building a Learning Community Communication and group-working skills and preferences There has been very little research relating face-to-face communication skills and preferences with the use and perception of CMC. CMC, through the lack of social context cues, is thought to reduce evaluation anxiety [24]. Individuals who are highly apprehensive about communicating face-to-face are fearful about being negatively evaluated by others and it has been suggested [25] that individuals with high levels of Communication Apprehension (CA) may prefer to use CMC and be more expressive using this medium. In contrast, individuals who are confident verbal communicators may feel restricted using only text-based media. To investigate these suggestions, Oxley [25] compared individuals with high, medium and low levels of CA in face-to-face and electronic seminars. The results showed that individuals with high levels of CA were significantly less anxious when communicating via CMC, compared to when they took part in face-to-face discussion, and also these individuals participated more in the e-seminar discussions. However, this study was conducted using synchronous e-seminars and in a laboratory environment and therefore it is not clear how far the findings can be generalized to "real" asynchronous e-seminars.
In an early study, Taylor [26] found that perceived fluency when speaking (compared to writing) correlated with a more negative attitude towards CMC, but frequency of use of CMC was not related to this. Following on from this, the results of an evaluation of e-seminars by Taylor [4] also showed that those students perceiving their written skills to be more effective than their spoken skills perceived e-seminars to be more stimulating than face-to-face seminars. Students who feel less eloquent when speaking may benefit more from a computer-mediated format for discussion than more confident verbal communicators. A preference for group-working was related to lower levels of satisfaction, enjoyability and involvement in e-seminars, compared to face-to-face seminars. This may be because those students who enjoy working in groups do so because they enjoy the face-to-face interaction and perhaps therefore they did not enjoy the asynchronous and isolated nature of e-seminars. Alternatively, those students normally preferring to work individually may have found the e-seminars more satisfying, more enjoyable, more stimulating and more involving as this medium allowed them an equal opportunity to participate in group discussion. Further research is needed to collect more extensive measures of communication and group-working skills and preferences.
Personality
The idea of looking at personality as a factor in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and teaching and learning is not new, but there appears to be little consideration of it in the CMC literature. Adrianson & Hjelmquist [24]
investigated the role of extroversion in CMC and found that extroverts communicated significantly more than introverts using a CMC system, although these differences were much weaker than in normal face-to-face communication. A more recent study [22] investigated the effect of personality on the attitudes and behavior of students using computer-supported collaborative learning environments in a distance education setting. Morgan & Morgan [22] found that
extroverts actively looked forward to the online group actIvIty before their sessions, while introverts reported strong negative anticipation. The results of an evaluation of e-serninars by Taylor [4] showed a significant relationship between introversion and negative scores on scales assessing perceptions of satisfaction and enjoyability of e-seminars. The results also showed that the more self-conscious students were, the more they thought the seminars were involving. This suggests that quieter individuals may benefit the most from a computer-mediated format for discussion; similarly, more vocal students may benefit the least. Unfortunately, because questionnaires were completed anonymously, it was not possible to relate questionnaire responses to contributions made during e-seminars. It would be interesting in a future study to investigate whether quieter students contributed more to the discussions than more vocal students. In conclusion, those personality traits which promote a preference for CMC may vary substantially from those which promote face-to-face communication. If this is the case, moving traditional seminars over to e-seminars may impact student performance in many ways, which clearly requires further research.
Computer experience and perceptions of computing
Research shows that experience with computers leads to the formation of positive attitudes toward computers in general; however, the literature is unclear as to whether there is a positive association between prior CMC experience and subsequent use and positive attitude towards e-seminars. Light et al. [27] reported that a 'skywriting' facility was used most by a small group of computer-proficient students. Seale & Cann [14] reported that lack of technical ability prevented some learners from contributing to an online discussion forum. Dislike of computers or technophobia is not an unusual phenomenon among students and may explain the low take-up rates of e-seminars experienced by some educators. Seale & Cann [14]
reported that a dislike of computers prevented some learners from enjoying or benefiting from the learning experience when online discussions took place.
Learning style
Taylor [28] investigated the relationship between students' perceptions of e- seminars and their scores on the Approaches to Study Inventory (shortened version). This inventory contains three subscales: meaning orientation, reproducing orientation and achieving orientation. She fOUfld that levels of satisfaction were negatively correlated with scores on the "reproducing orientation" subscale: such that students with high scores on this subscale did not perceive the e-seminars as satisfying. Students with higher scores on the "meaning orientation" subscale appeared to achieve the most benefit from e-seminars, in that they perceived them as more stimulating and reported more understanding of the key topics of the unit as a result of electronic discussion. There was a nearly significant correlation between high scores on the "achieving orientation" sub scale and a reported increase in using literature sources to support points of view expressed during the e-seminar. In conclusion, e-seminars were perceived as a positive support to learning for students scoring high on "achieving orientation" and "meaning orientation" approaches to studying, but were perceived more negatively by those
134 The Digital University - Building a Learning Community scoring high on the 'reproducing orientation' approach to studying. Further examination of the role of student learning styles on computer-assisted learning can be found in Shaw & Marlow [23].
9.4 Best Practice Guidelines
The final section of this chapter provides a list of best practice guidelines, suggesting ways for educators to realize some of the benefits highlighted in Section 9.2 and consider some of the factors identified in Section 9.3 when designing and implementing e-seminars. These guidelines draw on the experience of the author [4, 26, 28] who has been using e-seminars within undergraduate programmes for seven years.
9.4.1 Group Size and Composition
It is recommended that an ideal e-seminar group size of between four to eight members is used. A smaller group increases the pace of interaction (frequency of message-sending) and a larger group increases the granularity (length of message) - both can potentially lead to information overload and communication breakdown.
Levels of student motivation to participate in e-seminars are higher if students are given some choice regarding group membership, but this may not always be feasible (dependent on task and assessment). When groups are made up of students from similar backgrounds (e.g., studying the same unit or degree) higher levels of motivation and participation were shown. However, perceived similarities between group members can lead to a more stilted and uncontentious discussion.
9.4.2 Moderation and Lecturer Presence
One of the ways in which lecturers can draw attention to the purpose and relevance of e-seminars is to take an active part in them. Lecturers can post messages to the e-seminar at strategic times and highlight the ways in which students can create meaning from the experience. This needs to be done sensitively so that students do not feel threatened by the lecturer's presence.
Experience has shown that it is preferable that each group be allocated a moderator who can be called on where necessary.
9.4.3 Requirements for Participation and Assessment
Prior to the start of the e-seminar, the educator should ensure that students are provided with: the pedagogical aims of the e-seminars (e.g., to encourage reflection on the learning process at the same time as learning about the discussion topic);
and the precise nature of the assessment of contributions (if any), and the requirements for participation (e.g., to make at least one contribution per week or to check daily for new messages).
E-seminars are most beneficial when they allow students to present and lead discussions as well as contribute to other students' presentations. In this way they can practice their skills of facilitation, discussion and collaboration.
Enough time needs to be allowed to complete the discussion: remember it takes longer to type than to talk and time is needed between contributions to allow reflection and research to take place.
Encouragement to join other discussion groups as guest members allows students to compare the progress of other groups and to assimilate the different views.
9.4.4 Technical Issues
Training sessions on the relevant software and hardware are essential prior to implementation. A practice e-seminar should then be set up to allow students to experiment with the system and the process of e-seminar participation.
An online advice discussion should be maintained throughout the duration of the e- seminar for students experiencing technical problems.
9.4.5 Group Atmosphere
Contributors need to feel that e-seminars are a safe environment in which to contribute personal and academic contributions, therefore an element of trust needs to be fostered. Students should not feel threatened; therefore it is important that the lecturer makes every effort to encourage students to support each other. This is clearly important in traditional seminars but, because of the nature of CMC, it is even more important to consider in this situation. For example, anonymity and lack of cues in CMC can encourage individuals to "flame" or self-disclose and also the permanence of the text may inhibit some individuals from contributing.
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