A Survey of Factors Contributing to Learners' “Listening” Behaviors in Asynchronous Online Discussions

Abstract

Sixty-seven undergraduates taking either a Blended Business Course (BBC) or an Online Education Course (OEC) were surveyed about factors influencing their “listening” behaviors in asynchronous online course discussions. These are the ways they attend to the posts made by others: which posts they open, how they engage with open posts, and which posts they choose to respond to. Goal-orientations were also assessed. Results indicate that student decisions about which posts to open relied strongly on discussion reply-structure and message timing; authorship was important only to BBC students. Once open, OEC students often scanned posts to decide whether to read in-depth. In the BBC, similar triage strategies were used by work-avoidant students, while mastery students read posts thoroughly. In deciding which posts to reply to, BBC students favored posts that agreed with them while OEC students favored those that disagreed. Course and student characteristics that may account for these differences are discussed and implications for research and practice are presented.