Conceptualization and assessment of academic communication among Canadian university students.

Abstract

The goals of this research were to conceptualize, assess, and examine the implications of the new construct of academic communication. In Study 1, N = 642 undergraduate students completed an initial set of items for the Academic Communication Inventory (ACI). Results demonstrated that the best fitting structure of the ACI was a two-factor solution consisting of the subscales: (a) Communication With Instructors and (b) Communication With Peers. In Study 2 (N = 1,074), we assessed measure invariance and mean differences of the ACI subscales across educational context (i.e., blended courses, online courses, offline courses). Results from multigroup factor analyses suggested that the ACI could be used as both a general and course-specific measure of academic communication (AC) and that aspects of communication differed across educational context. Results are situated within the landscape of contemporary higher education, and the implications of academic communication on student development are discussed. Public Significance StatementThe goal of this research was to conceptualize and develop a measure of academic communication, a new construct that reflects how undergraduate students use different types of social communication to enhance academic outcomes at university. We found that: (a) students' academic communication can be broadly separated into communications with other students versus communication with instructors/ teaching assistants (TAs) and (b) students use academic communication differently in online versus blended versus in-person courses. These results highlight the potential importance of academic communication in promoting positive academic outcomes among university students.