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Interactive Learning Environments
ISSN: 1049-4820 (Print) 1744-5191 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/nile20
Read-only participants: a case for student
communication in online classes
L. Nagel , A. S. Blignaut & J. C. Cronjé
To cite this article: L. Nagel , A. S. Blignaut & J. C. Cronjé (2009) Read-only participants: a case
for student communication in online classes, Interactive Learning Environments, 17:1, 37-51, DOI:
10.1080/10494820701501028
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820701501028
Published online: 13 Mar 2009.
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Read-only participants: a case for student communication in online classes
L. Nagela
*, A.S. Blignautb and J.C. Cronje´
c
a
University of Pretoria, South Africa; b
North-West University, South Africa; c
Cape Peninsula
University of Technology, South Africa
(Received 5 April 2007; final version received 25 May 2007)
The establishment of an online community is widely held as the most important
prerequisite for successful course completion and depends on an interaction between
a peer group and a facilitator. Beaudoin reasoned that online students sometimes
engage and learn even when not taking part in online discussions. The context of this
study was an online course on web-based education for a Masters degree in
computer-integrated education at the University of Pretoria. We used a mixed
methodology approach to investigate how online activity and discussion postings
relate to learning and course completion. We also investigated how student
collaborative behaviour and integration into the community related to success.
Although the quantitative indices measured showed highly significant differences
between the stratifications of student performance, there were notable exceptions
unexplained by the trends. The class harboured a well-functioning online learning
community. We also uncovered the discontent students in the learning community
felt for invisible students who were absent without reason from group assignments
or who made shallow and insufficient contributions. Student online visibility and
participation can take many forms, like read-only participants who skim over or
deliberately harvest others’ discussions. Other students can be highly visible without
contributing. Students who anticipate limited access due to poor connectivity, high
costs or other reasons can manage their log-in time effectively and gain maximum
benefit. Absent and seldom contributing students risk forsaking the benefits of the
virtual learning community. High quality contributions rather than quantity builds
trust among mature students. We suggest how to avoid read-only-participation:
communicate the required number of online classroom postings; encourage
submission of high quality, thoughtful postings; grade discussions and give
formative feedback; award individual grades for group projects and rotate members
of groups; augment facilitator communication with Internet-independent media to
convey important information. Read-only-participants disrupt the formation of a
virtual community of learners and compromise learning.
Keywords: higher education; web-based learning; participation; lurkers; virtual
community of learners
Background
As more formal education courses are available online, quality and non-completion
remain problems:
While online course enrolments continue to climb, retention and success rates in such
courses and programs are frequently reported as typically lower than those delivered in
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Interactive Learning Environments
Vol. 17, No. 1, March 2009, 37–51
ISSN 1049-4820 print/ISSN 1744-5191 online
2009 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/10494820701501028
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