Encouraging Forum Participation in Online Courses with Collectivist, Individualist and Neutral Motivational Framings

Abstract

espanolLos foros de debate en linea han demostrado contribuir a la confianza y a la cohesion de los grupos, y su utilizacion ha ido de la mano de un mayor compromiso general en los cursos en linea. Ideamos dos intervenciones experimentales para alentar a los estudiantes a participar en los foros. Para adaptar los estimulos a favor de la participacion en los foros, se utilizo un marco colectivista («your participation benefits everyone» (tu participacion es beneficiosa para todos)), uno individualista («you benefit from participating» (te beneficias de la participacion)) y otro neutral («there is a forum» (hay un foro)). Se envio un e-mail de estimulo al principio del curso a todos los participantes inscritos (study 1: general encouragement, (estudio 1: incentivo general)) y mas adelante durante el curso, solo a aquellos que aun no habian participado en el foro (study 2: targeted encouragement, (estudio 2: incentivo selectivo)). Los incentivos no fueron eficaces para motivar a los estudiantes a participar. El marco colectivista desalento las contribuciones relativas a los demas marcos y no condujo a ningun estimulo. Todo ello suscita la siguiente pregunta: ?En que medida experimentan los estudiantes un sentimiento de comunidad en la aplicacion actual de los cursos en linea? EnglishOnline discussion forums have been shown to contribute to the trust and cohesion of groups, and their use has been associated with greater overall engagement in online courses. We devised two experimental interventions to encourage learners to participate in forums. A collectivist (“your participation benefits everyone”), individualist (“you benefit from participating”), or neutral (“there is a forum”) framing was employed to tailor encouragements for forum participation. An email encouragement was sent out to all enrolled users at the start of the course (study 1: general encouragement), and later in the course, to just those who had not participated in the forum (study 2: targeted encouragement). Encouragements were ineffective in motivating learners to participate. The collectivist framing discouraged contributions relative to the other framings and no encouragement. This prompts the question: To what extent do online learners experience a sense of community in current implementations of online courses?