This study examined the interactions that occurred in an on-line university course. The study used the verbal interaction categories identified in the Flanders Interaction Analysis Protocol (1970) and the Criteria for a Learning Community by Palloff and Pratt (1999). A qualitative research design was selected in order to analyze the content of the individual student posts, as well as to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the instruments used to measure interaction and community.
The NVivo7™ research software was used to categorize and analyze the content of student interaction in threaded discussions for four individual cases. The results showed that students did form community to varying degrees and that the degree of community formed differed based on developmental factors and previous classroom experience. From the Flanders protocol, Lecturing-Citing Opinions and Agreement-Building on the Ideas of Others were the most common types of interactions. The study also identified several types of interactions that the Flanders instrument did not classify, such as Relating Personal Experience, Reflective Comments, Use of Flames/Emoticons/Text Message Language, and Expressions of Courtesy.
The discussion text met many of the criteria identified by Palloff and Pratt (1999) for a learning community. The cases involving graduate students were more likely to meet the criteria for collaborative learning and socialization than the cases comprised of undergraduate students. None of the cases identified any instances of offers to evaluate the work of others, a Palloff and Pratt (1999) criteria.
Recommendations were made for improving the design on on-line courses to be more intuitive and to allow for visual reinforcement of interaction types. Additionally, training for faculty utilizing on-line courses that identifies strategies to encourage and develop different types of interactions in the on-line classroom was recommended. Other recommendations included development of a series of Indicators that signify the development of community in the on-line classroom.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-04302008-092522 |
| Date | 27 June 2008 |
| Creators | O'Hara, Lisa Johnston |
| Contributors | Louis H. Berry, Ph.D., Louis H. Pingel, Ph.,D., Richard Donato, Ph.D., Diane J. Davis, Ph.D. |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-04302008-092522/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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