Instructor-Moderated Chat Rooms Help Shy Students
November 19. 2003
University Park, Pa.—Preliminary results of a Penn State study show that introverted students in large classes who participated in instructor-moderated chat rooms shed their reserve and enhanced their understanding of course material.
In course evaluations, students who didn't describe themselves as audio-visual learners indicated the hour-long chat rooms promoted learning, said Edward Glantz, a doctoral student in the School of Information Sciences and Technology. He conducted the study with Michael D. McNeese, associate professor of information sciences and technology.
For some students, participation in the chat rooms even resulted in higher test performances than from typical review study sessions.
"The chat rooms I moderated required students to read and think and weren't a replacement for doing homework," Glantz said. "They allowed those students who wanted to do well to do even better."
Glantz and McNeese's findings are discussed in "Understanding Distributed Cognition in Moderated Chat Rooms: A Preliminary Analysis" presented at the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society's annual meeting in October in Denver.
Glantz hit upon using instructor-moderated chat rooms last year when he was teaching two sections of an introductory undergraduate course in information systems. Each section typically averaged more than 300 business majors.
To create a more responsive and interactive learning environment, he held chat rooms prior to exams. Each was between 60 and 75 minutes in length and followed an agenda Glantz posted ahead of time.
"It wasn't me lecturing—it was students interacting with each other and asking questions and providing answers in an instructor-moderated environment," he said.
If no students had questions about material, then Glantz started the discussion with a question of his own.
About 30 students participated in each of the three chat rooms that he organized using Penn State's course management system. He also continued holding the traditional face-to-face review session for comparison.
The Penn State researcher found that students who were uncomfortable asking questions in the large class were willing to participate in the chat rooms. By removing their apprehension, these students became comfortable and discovered they could learn more.
"A significant student response was 'I was willing to participate because of the anonymity'," Glantz said.
Other students also benefited because he posted transcripts from the chat room. This enabled students who couldn't "attend" to have access to the questions and discussions.
While Glantz developed the moderated chat rooms as an instructional technique for large classes, he said students in small classes could benefit, too.
"Learning can't take place when students aren't comfortable, so chat rooms provide an alternative for students who don't like to participate in discussions," he said.
Glantz and McNeese are further analyzing course evaluations to determine what kinds of students benefit the most from instructor-moderated chat rooms. The researchers are looking at socio-cultural factors, such as gender, ethnicity, personality types and learning styles.
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