Effects of Computer-Mediated Communication

Background

With businesses continuing to increase their expenditures for employee education, there is progressively more focus on maximizing employees’ educational outcomes to effectively leverage corporations’ investment. Dunn (2000) predicts that large corporations will develop their own approval systems for higher education programs similar to the current regional accreditation process.

Bradburn and Zimbler (2002) make the point that the 1999 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty lacked detailed questions about modes of technology, training and instructional practices in individual distance education courses and affirm that further studies in faculty participation in distance education are needed. Northrup (2002) confirms this opinion by stating that future studies should consider variables that may affect the individual learner, the learning environment and instructional strategies that may be most appropriate for specific learning outcomes. Quilter and Chester (2001) emphasize that few formal research studies have been conducted to examine the relationships between online communication technologies and teaching and learning, and reaffirm that research employing empirical documentation of communication technologies is lacking.

The method of computer-mediated communication is important since different technology-supported methods of interaction (e.g., two-way interactive TV, text-based chat, e-mail) have different characteristics in regard to immediacy of feedback, student-student and student-faculty interaction, realism and student user control (Smith & Dillon, 1999). Kearsley (1995) reinforces the belief that the method of computer-mediated communication used is critical to the learning process, as it affects the provision of feedback to the student. Distance learning environments that support synchronous communication can provide immediate feedback to the learners and rapid interaction between learners, a feature that may motivate some learners. In contrast, distance learning environments that support asynchronous communication can provide the student with more control over where and when communication occurs as well as more time to reflect on and respond to course content and communications (Moore & Kearsley, 1995). The modality of communication employed in the course is a significant factor in determining the nature of the learning community that is formed in the course.

Duffy and Kirkley (2004) state that most higher education research relies on survey data; that is, class ratings and specialized surveys like the National Survey of Student Engagement (Kuh, 2001), to infer, based on student report, that learning has occurred. It is this researcher’s opinion that one of the main reasons for a lack of prior studies using quantitative data collected directly from course records has been the difficulty inherent in obtaining such data in an online, distributed learning environment.