"I'd be so much more comfortable posting anonymously": Identified versus anonymous participation in student discussion boards

Abstract

<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span><p>Academic staff members encourage university students to use online student discussion boards within learning management systems to ask and answer questions, share information and engage in discussion. We explore the impact of anonymity on student posting behaviour. An online survey was completed by 131 second year undergraduate psychology students (91% response rate). Overall, students reported being significantly more likely to post to discussion boards when anonymous posting was enabled than when identified posting was required (<em>d </em>= .49). Students who preferred to post anonymously were significantly less likely to post on discussion boards requiring identification than other students (<em>η</em><sup>2 </sup>= .27). The experimental manipulation of anonymous/identified postings using a simulated discussion board thread revealed no significant differences in the perceived credibility of authors of anonymous and identified messages, or in the likelihood of responding to these messages. A combination of individual level factors; including online privacy concern, self-consciousness and self-efficacy; were predictive of the likelihood of making identified postings (<em>R</em><sup>2 </sup>= .387), but only self-efficacy was a significant unique predictor of anonymous postings (<em>sr</em><sup>2 </sup>= .05). Educators can consider enabling anonymous postings and providing training to increase student self-efficacy as ways of increasing student engagement through decreasing concerns about self-presentation online.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"> </p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span>

Have a question? Just ask it: using an anonymous mobile discussion platform for student engagement and peer interaction to support large group teaching

“…The type of questions varied across the cohort and gave some indication of how the system was used to encourage interaction with staff. The use of the platform as a device for active disclosure of anxiety or misunderstanding is an interesting finding and confirms the results of Roberts and Rajah-Kanagasabai (2013), who suggested that students will make use of this facility if provided, and limited only by their self-efficacy. Krüger-Ross et al's (2013) discussion regarding overcoming the fear of publicly asking questions in class also appears to have been addressed, as well as Rothstein and Santana's (2011) consideration, that students who asked questions adopted a greater ownership of their learning.…”

“…This may be an indication of the strength of the strict social norms governing behaviour in large cohorts as suggested by Ellison et al (2016), or as found by Savenski, Chou and Roy (2016), that a degree of self and community censorship exists even within these anonymous spaces. Alternatively, it could also imply that as suggested by Roberts and Rajah-Kanagasabai (2013) when exploring the use of anonymous discussion boards, that 'lack of trust' is still an issue.…”

“…Students, therefore, may shy away from regularly sending emails for fear of being seen as being 'difficult' or 'needy', or receiving a negative reaction (van der Meij 1988). For many students, the perceived negatives such as self-consciousness, fear of negative evaluation, and lack of psychological safety (Roberts and Rajah-Kanagasabai 2013;van der Meij 1988) presented by using these channels dissuade students from seeking help. They instead struggle on alone and in the dark, or become reliant on the similar levels of understanding and sadly misunderstanding of their peers (Exeter et al 2010).…”

Anonymity as an instructional scaffold in peer assessment: its effects on peer feedback quality and evolution in students’ perceptions about peer assessment skills

“…In general, individuals who feel psychologically safe are more likely to perceive differences in opinions as opportunities rather than conflicts and to provide candid and critical peer feedback that can lead to higher quality learning outcomes (Lu and Bol 2007;van Gennip et al 2009). Moreover, the negative influences that self-consciousness can exert on the assessor in peer assessment activities can also be relieved (Roberts and Rajah-Kanagasabai 2013;Zhang et al 2010). With these liberating effects, anonymity can help relax the social customs and conventional roles that are usually expected of students (Miyazoe and Anderson 2011) and is thus preferable to a situation in which participants know each other (e.g., Hosack 2004).…”

Challenges in Using Cloud Technology for Promoting Learner Autonomy in a Spanish Language Course

“…This was discovered later when reviewing the answers to the survey. Research has already shown that students are often more comfortable when they are able to post anonymously (Roberts, 2013).…”