All through the COVID-19 pandemic, academic establishments have turned to on-line studying platforms as a technique to proceed program supply when in-person conferences have been restricted, thus making the platforms an integral a part of many pupil experiences.
“Learner engagement is likely one of the greatest challenges of on-line studying,” mentioned Wang, principal investigator of the undertaking and affiliate professor in USask’s Edwards Faculty of Enterprise. “On-line dialogue boards have the flexibility to alleviate the issue of lack of interplay and communication within the distant, asynchronous on-line studying surroundings.”
Wang stresses that many on-line schooling dialogue boards aren’t totally developed and will not include the identical functionalities as these utilized in fields similar to e-commerce.
The work will deal with demonstrating the tutorial worth of short-form responses by college students and instructors in on-line studying platforms by conducting a textual evaluation of the responses and the participation charges of scholars.
“Brief responses are outlined as learners’ temporary, non-substantive responses to on-line content material in e-learning boards,” mentioned Wang. “This content material is taken into account to be low-quality participation within the prior on-line dialogue discussion board literature, however our statement is that brief response participation is a serious taking part behaviour.”
The staff will then use the premise of those observations to make options for performance enhancements and platform enchancment to the accomplice firm.
Shan Wang’s analysis staff, together with professor Dr. Fang Wang (PhD) from Wilfred Laurier College, and affiliate professor Dr. Zhao Du (PhD) from Beijing Sport College, will work with EduWind, an organization that focuses on constructing on-line platforms for academic establishments.
The undertaking has been awarded a SSHRC Partnership Interact grant of $24,997. These grants assist partnered analysis actions that may inform decision-making and meet the wants of a accomplice group from the general public, personal or non-profit sector.