Abstract
The characteristics of the online environment alter how students and instructors interact. Scientific discourse among students and instructors in an online text-only synchronous environment was analyzed. In converting dialogue to text, many of the nonverbal cues, such as facial expression and tone of voice, which instructors use to gauge student understanding are lost. The participants adapt their communication style to the medium, and we present a new interaction pattern for student–instructor communication found prevalent in the synchronous, text-only, online environment. This study has implications for instructors who use synchronous, text-based communication for their courses, namely the value of posing additional questions from the instructor to verify student understanding.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the participation of Professor Doris R. Kimbrough in the development of the online course that was studied in this research. We would also like to acknowledge the participation of Professor James H. Reeves in the online discussions.
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Epp, E.M., Green, K.F., Rahman, A.M. et al. Analysis of Student–Instructor Interaction Patterns in Real-Time, Scientific Online Discourse. J Sci Educ Technol 19, 49–57 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-009-9177-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-009-9177-z