[Air-l] Chat Room Study

Rachel Harris R.Harris at udcf.gla.ac.uk
Wed Aug 7 07:28:33 PDT 2002


Hi Marj

I'm currently working with a group as part of SCROLLA investigating means of
characterising online learning communications.  We are treating messages
posted to online conferences as indicators of online behaviours, although
other terms are also used, such as 'moves' which bring in other research,
for example, associated with turn taking in groups.  ( A couple of recent
conference papers are available on the web at
http://www.shef.ac.uk/nlc2002/proceedings/symp/04.htm#04a Chappel et al
"Fast Coding of On-line Learning Behaviours using an 'Elements' Approach"
and McAteer el al http://www.shef.ac.uk/nlc2002/proceedings/symp/04.htm#04b
"Characterising On-line Learning Environments", if you're interested.)

I suspect the conclusions that can be drawn by your student will depend on
how she intends to analyse the chat room data. This could be the critical
discourse analysis that Jeremy referred to, which might seek to categorise
incidences of different kinds of communication behaviours, or references to
behaviours outside of the chatroom. Any conclusions from this would be based
on assumptions made by the researcher, which may be off the mark, especially
given the nature of the study. One technique that we will be developing to
address this, is that of situated participant recall. This involves
interviewing, possibly online, contributors to discussions to first ask for
their views on the discussions under study, and then to comment on the
researcher's interpretation of parts of these communications. This approach
has the advantage of reducing the chance of quoting out of context and
changing the original author's intent, while checking the interpretation of
others' comments. It also links to the importance of gaining permission and
maintaining confidentiality.  

Other techniques that might be useful to investigate could be social
networks analysis. Depending on how much background detail you have, this
could be interesting in terms of who refers to whom, or who pays attention
to whom within the chat room, and could lead on to work that is more related
to the impact of the discourse.

My focus is in online learning, but one paper in this area that may be
useful is Murphy, K. L., & Collins, M.P. (1998). "Development of
communication conventions in instructional electronic chats." Journal of
Distance Education 12(1/2): 177-200 Available online at:
http://disted.tamu.edu/aera97a.htm

Best wishes
Rachel


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr Rachel A Harris
Scottish Centre for Research into On-Line Learning and Assessment
University of Glasgow
Florentine House
53 Hillhead Street
Glasgow, G12 8QQ

0141 330 2878
r.harris at udcf.gla.ac.uk
www.scrolla.ac.uk


-----Original Message-----
From: air-l-admin at aoir.org [mailto:air-l-admin at aoir.org]On Behalf Of Marj
Kibby
Sent: 07 August 2002 06:02
To: air-l at aoir.org
Subject: [Air-l] Chat Room Study


Hi all,

A PhD student is doing research into Enjo Kousai or teenage prostitution in
Japan. Her primary source of personal information is chat room archives.

Our review board has said that we can do a study of the chat room but "The
research can only be about chat room discourse and not about how Japanese
teenagers behave"

Can tentative 'conclusions' be drawn about attitudes and behaviours from
online conversation? Does anyone know of published work along these lines?

Cheers,
Marj

Dr Marjorie Kibby, Senior Lecturer in Communication & Culture
The University of Newcastle,  Callaghan NSW 2308 Australia
Marj.Kibby at newcastle.edu.au
+61 2 49216604 << File: Marj Kibby.vcf >> 




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