Improving Online Communication for Students in Higher Education Contexts

Sarah Ohi, Brian Doig

Abstract


The study reported here sought to identify Higher Education students’ preferred modes of online communication whilst studying a wholly online research subject at University.   The teacher education student participants from an Australian university were required to collaboratively conduct inquiry research projects in groups whilst relying upon computer-mediated communication. How do students communicate as a collaborative research group whilst only meeting online? The data were collected via the use of online pre-test and post-test surveys conducted ‘prior to’ and ‘post’ involvement in the unit of study and descriptive statistical analysis was applied.  The findings revealed that important influences affecting students’ choice of communication mode included their own views on the capacity of online communication, their prior experience and the availability and accessibility of the modes. Furthermore, it was found that when given a choice, students preferred the use of asynchronous forms of digital communication to synchronous forms. Recommendations for improving online teaching, learning and research contexts in Universities are provided and the importance of considering blended mode delivery for wholly online units is argued

 

 

 


Keywords


Higher education; information communication; online; research; distance education; educational technology; early childhood.

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References


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International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

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