Online learner profiles have diversified such that now, they include all types of participants from a variety of backgrounds. This study analyzed online learner profiles in regard to their entry characteristics, participation behaviors and achievement of course outcomes. The sample consisted of 186 participants from an online course that required the employment of synchronous and asynchronous communication methods over the Internet. The data were collected through five online questionnaires and included 10 variables (gender, age, work status, self-efficacy, online readiness, self-regulation, participation in discussion list, participation in chat sessions, satisfaction and achievement). A two-step cluster analysis, chi-square analysis and multivariate analysis were used to analyze the collected data. The results indicated that online learners fell into three significantly different clusters and within each cluster, learners had a close combination of employment characteristics, gender type, age level, perception of self-efficacy for online technologies and participation behavior level. improving since it has been adapting new applications and technologies to the learning environ-
This study analyzed discussions in asynchronous and synchronous communication of a course given in the online Information Technologies Certificate Program, using Bales's Interaction Process Analysis model. This model focuses on Social Emotional (SE) and Task Oriented (TO) areas. The content analyses of asynchronous and synchronous communication transcripts showed that posted messages were related to both task- and social-oriented area, but mainly to task-oriented ones. The instructors' and participants' TO messages are mainly related with attempted answers to the questions. Instructors and the participants posted more positive reactions messages than negative reactions messages in the SE area. Also, semi-structured interviews with participants and instructors were conducted to investigate findings which revealed complementary results to the content analysis. Moreover, discussion list was used mainly by participants by asking questions or getting answers and instructors' guided chat sessions to discuss critical issues in course topics by asking questions.
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