Examining the Relationships of the Students’ Participation Patterns with their Learning Satisfaction and Learning Achievement in Asynchronous Online Discussions

Abstract

Examining how people learn in various learning environments is at the core of the science of learning. The more we understand how students learn from different dimensions and aspects, the better equipped we are to support their learning. This study aims to expand our understanding of how learning occurs within the context of an asynchronous online discussion. Several studies have investigated and reported on how to effectively structure and facilitate an asynchronous online discussion to promote high-quality discourse from an interventionist perspective. From the situative, participatory perspective on knowing and learning, this study aims at examining the quality of participation in an asynchronous online discussion. This includes the examination of students’ participation patterns in asynchronous online discussions and the analyses of how these patterns explain their learning satisfaction and achievement. The present study identified the following participation patterns: Efficientist, Facilitator, Synthesizer, and Slacker found that there was a strong relationship of the participation patterns with learning satisfaction and learning achievement. The results indicate that participation patterns could be an important factor influencing student learning experience in an asynchronous online discussion. Future directions for research are discussed, including the analysis of social dynamics that could have an impact on participation patterns