Understanding the experience of non contributory online participants (readers) in National College for School Leadership online communities

Abstract

This study explored the range of participation taking place in the National College for School Leadership (NCSL) online communities and focussed on participants who defined themselves as not actively contributing to the online discussion. We called these non-contributory participants "readers" Whilst we recognised that an individual community member's degree of participation might simply reflect their choice, we wanted to ensure that where fuller active participation was sought, there were no system or personal barriers to prevent it. A literature review with a dual focus was therefore made, the first element being factors in the online environment that might affect participation, and the second being personal motivation where we drew especially on dynamic motivation theory. A questionnaire was constructed based on this dual review. This had questions that generated both numerical and text based responses. After a pilot study, alterations in the questionnaire were made and the revised version was sent to 2,600 recently active community members. Over 750 replies were received yielding qualitative and quantitative data. Of these, 587 identified themselves as "readers" and only their responses were analysed for this paper. Analysis produced a very rich picture of motivational factors affecting participation in online communities. Benefits of various types of online interaction were put forward and suggestions about barriers to online interaction were made. This paper suggests that online participation may be seen as a continuum and that non contributory online participants (readers) are a far from homogeneous group ranging from those who experience technical and personal barriers to those who value and gain much from readership. Suggestions are made to assist readers who would like to take further scaffolded steps towards the role of contributor

Student expectations of peers in academic asynchronous online discussion

“…Students characterised this in terms of "courtesy" (Nina), and simply as an "expectation" (Tia). These findings challenge the work of a small number of studies defending students' rights to read a discussion without contributing actively (e.g., Gulati, 2008;Seddon et al, 2011). Another section of literature reinforces the sense of mutual obligation that holds community together due to generalised reciprocity-where students respond to others because others will, in turn, respond (e.g., Hew et al, 2010).…”

How and why do students of higher education participate in online seminars?

“…However, online learners do not only build relationships with groups, courses and programs, but also with individuals within these entities. It is essential to investigate individual perceptions and relationships in order to understand how individual online students behave in relation to others (Seddon et al 2011;Wiertz and de Ruyter 2007). For example, a study might conclude that a group contributed with many or few messages, but we will not give an understanding of the underlying reasons if we do not examine individual students.…”