Elsevier

Computers & Education

Volume 51, Issue 4, December 2008, Pages 1755-1765
Computers & Education

What is online learner participation? A literature review

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2008.05.005Get rights and content

Abstract

It is commonly argued that a key challenge for e-learning is to encourage learner participation. Even though this challenge has received increased attention by researchers, little effort has been put into developing a sound theoretical understanding of what online participation actually is and how it may be studied empirically. This paper examines the conceptions and research approaches that underlie research on online participation in e-learning settings. A classification scheme was iteratively developed and used when publications on the topic were reviewed. It was found that research is dominated by low-level conceptions of online participation, which relies on frequency counts as measures of participation. However, some researchers aim to study more complex dimensions of participation, such as whether participants feel they are taking part and are engaged in dialogues, reflected by using a combination of perceived and actual measures of participation. In conclusion, a definition of online learner participation that acknowledges its more complex dimensions, such as doing, communicating, thinking, feeling, and belonging, is proposed.

Introduction

Participation has been argued to be an intrinsic part of learning (Wenger, 1998). A key challenge for e-learning, defined as learning and teaching facilitated online through network technologies (Garrison & Anderson, 2003), is to encourage participation (Bento & Schuster, 2003). It is commonly argued that learner participation may be enhanced by using computer-mediated communication media in both traditional and e-learning settings (Harasim, 1989, Haythornthwaite, 2002, Leidner and Jarvenpaa, 1995). Almost as long as computer-mediated communication media has been used, researchers have tried to understand how online participation may be encouraged. Previous research has shown that participation, measured as interaction with peers and teachers, has a positive effect on perceived learning, grades and quality assessment of assignments (e.g., Fredericksen et al., 2000, Hiltz et al., 2000). Furthermore, it has been argued that participation influences learner satisfaction (Alavi & Dufner, 2005) and retention rates (Rovai, 2002) positively. Interestingly, many researchers seem to agree on that online participation is a key driver for learning even though their perceptions of how online participation may be conceptualised is very different. Let me illustrate this by comparing two recent studies.

In the first study, Davies and Graff (2005) examined the relationship between the level of online participation and grade. The students’ accesses to group and communication areas were combined and used to represent the degree of participation. Among other findings, it was concluded that “students who failed in one or more modules did interact less frequently than students who achieved passing grades” (p. 663). In the second study, Vonderwell and Zachariah (2005) searched for factors that influence learner participation. Their study included both perceived and actual measures of participation, collected through surveys, learner reflections and content analysis of communication. The findings “indicated that online learner participation and patterns of participation are influenced by the following factors: technology and interface characteristics, content area experience, student roles and instructional tasks, and information overload” (p. 213).

What can then be learnt about online learner participation from the two studies above? First, one needs to consider how participation was studied. If one believes that participation is a complex phenomenon that needs to be measured by using both perceived and actual measures, as in the second study, it may be argued that the first study investigates online access rather than online participation. Surprisingly, little effort has been put into developing a sound theoretical understanding of what online participation actually is and how it may be studied empirically. The aim of this paper is to address this problem by reviewing how online participation has been conceptualised and studied in e-learning settings. It concludes with suggestions to guide future research, which includes proposing a definition of online learner participation.

The paper is organized as follows. First, there is a description of the research procedure, including a discussion on how the publications to be included in the review were selected and analysed. Then, conceptions of online participation in the e-learning literature are discussed. This is followed by a description of the research approaches that have been adopted when studying online participation. Finally, the findings are discussed, limitations are acknowledged, further research is suggested and conclusions are put forward.

Section snippets

Procedure

In order to identify papers that aim to measure online learner participation, a literature review was conducted. As suggested by Webster and Watson (2002), it was searched broadly for publications on the topic rather than limiting the search to specific years or journals. Such a limit might have influenced the findings subjectively since: (1) research follow trends and thus specific research approaches might have been more common during certain time-periods; and (2) specific journals might

What is online learner participation?

In this section, examples of how online learner participation has been conceptualised, derived from the review of studies, is discussed. From the review it is clear that researchers’ perception of the complexity of online participation varies very much. Six levels iteratively emerged while reviewing the selected articles (see Table 1 and Appendix A). They were intended to describe the different ways in which online learner participation has been conceptualised.

Approaches for studying online learner participation

An initial classification scheme was developed prior to examining the research approaches of the reviewed studies. Two pairs of categories were decided on beforehand: (1) asynchronous and/or synchronous communication, and (2) quantitative and/or qualitative method. The first set of categories tell us what types of communication that were examined while the second set of categories give an indication of the types of approaches that underlie research. A number of categories iteratively emerged

Discussion

In this paper, six levels of conceptions of online learner participation, ranging from regarding participation as accessing e-learning environments to emphasizing taking part and joining in a dialogue, were identified. Moreover, the most common research approaches for studying online participation, ranging from simple frequency counts to learner perceptions, were identified. In Table 3, units of analysis that have been used in research on the six levels of conceptions of online learner

Conclusion

This paper has examined the conceptions and research approaches that underlie research on online participation in e-learning settings. A classification scheme was iteratively developed and used when publications on the topic were reviewed. It was found that research is dominated by low-level conceptions of online participation, which relies on frequency counts as measures of participation. However, some researchers aim to study more complex dimensions of participation, such as whether

Acknowledgements

A previous version of this paper was presented at the 16th European Conference on Information Systems, Galway. This work was supported by the Swedish Research School of Management and IT and Jönköping International Business School.

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