온라인 수업의 실시간 토론 내용 분석 = Content Analysis of Synchronous Discussions in the Online Learning Community

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study analyses the topic and quality of online discussion based on a data set collected from 40 students at an online university in South Korea during the spring semester of 2002. The focus is on whether and how the totpic and quality of online discussion evolve over time and depend on learner characteristics such as gender and age. We sampled 2820 discussion contributions by 21 students over 5 discussion sessions and grouped them into five categories of discussion topic and three evolution stages of online discussion community. We also conducted a post hoc survey in order to compare the perception about online discussion between 21 online discussion participants and 19 non-participants. Surprisingly, the analysis shows more active participation by female students than by male students who are believed to be more familiar with communication and information technologies. Social interaction was the most common type of exchanges in the online discussion, which did not evolve into a more developed stage of information exchange throughout the semester. The age group of 18-25 was the most active in online discussion and the age group of 26-34 kept pace with the evolution of online community. In the survey, participants of online discussion revealed a more positive attitude toward online learning than non-participants. In sum, the study finds that online discussion serves to build an online community but an active role on the part of instructors may be necessary to advance the online community to an effective learning community.