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Social conversation and effective discussion in online group learning

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Abstract

This paper studies the social talk of high school students in online discussion forums. On-task talk has generally been assessed as valuable discussion because it contributes directly to productive learning. Off-task conversation, on the other hand, is often regarded as useless and a waste of time. Should this social talk indeed be regarded as an off-task activity? Is social talk such as greeting, excusing, comforting and sharing personal feelings irrelevant to learning? This study analyzes threads and argues that social talk is interwoven with on-task talk. It is interesting to note that a substantial quantity of off-task messages served the latent function of guiding group discussion toward making progress in solving collaborative problems in a subtle and indirect manner. The power of “soft talk” embedded in off-task social conversation is explored and fully discussed.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National Science Counsel Grants NSC92-2520-S-008-005. Professor H. M. Jiang, the founder of LAIN, passed away on April 12th 2009. We lost a long time mentor and friend, but the countless hours, days, and years that he gave to the research group and Lain members will not be forgotten. His lasting impact on the research of online learning community will be profound.

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  1. Graduate Institute of Learning and Instruction, National Central University, No. 300, Jhongda Rd, Jhongli City, 32001, Taoyuan County, Taiwan

    Fei-Ching Chen

  2. Department of Sociology, Fu-Jen Catholic University, No. 510 Chung-Cheng Rd, Xsin-Chung City, 24205, Taipei County, Taiwan

    Thomas C. Wang

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  1. Fei-Ching Chen
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Correspondence to Fei-Ching Chen.

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Chen, FC., Wang, T.C. Social conversation and effective discussion in online group learning. Education Tech Research Dev 57, 587–612 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-009-9121-1

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