Share Paper: Effects of Spoken vs. Written Text on the Quality of Discussion in Online Discussion Boards

  1. D. Elizabeth Case, Texas Tech University, United States
  2. Steven Crooks, Texas Tech University, United States
  3. Xi Chen, Texas Tech University, United States
  4. Sonia Ford, Texas Tech University, United States
  5. Ninghua Han, Texas Tech University, United States
  6. Jason Torres, Texas Tech University, United States
Wednesday, March 7 1:30-1:50 PM Capitol F

Abstract: Many articles have been published on how to improve the quality of discussion within the asynchronous discussion boards frequently used in online courses. Still, the traditional written text threaded discussion boards often fail to produce the quality of interaction desired. Instead of trying to fix a method (i.e. written text discussions) which has often proved ineffective, this study looked at a potentially more effective alternative. In a within-participants experimental design, graduate students participated in two online discussion activities with different requirements in terms of posting modality—written text vs. spoken text. It was hypothesized that hearing the voices of other students ...