What Does the Online Chat Box Tell: A Mixed Study of Student Participation Indicated by Online Chat Data and Other Variables in an Online English Course

Abstract

Student participation is essential to both teaching and learning, especially in the online instruction mode. The present study aims to examine student participation and their relations with other variables such as learning outcome and teaching performance in a university English course online. Participants were 84 sophomores of English Education majors at a university who learned an English course on an online learning platform. Both qualitative data from the chat box of the online learning platform and quantitative data of students’ final scores and their scores of course evaluation were employed. Follow-up semi-structured interviews were also conducted to provide further insights into the findings. Results showed that student participation indicated by the online chat data was extensive and active, with all participants engaged and an average of 112 messages sent per student over the semester in the online English course. Further correlational analyses found that student participation was not significantly correlated with either learning outcome indicated by students’ final scores or teaching performance indicated by their course evaluation scores. However, interview data revealed that online chat boxes had contributed to lower-risk and more active online participation in several ways including attenuating participation apprehension, improving concentration on instruction and building a learning community. Implications of the findings were discussed and suggestions for future research were provided.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0011/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>