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A trial of an online forum as a form of reflective assessment in a practical Journalism subject produced gender-related patterns in the postings, prompting a quantitative analysis of the times and days on which the students made their contributions.A total of 454 postings was made over the three month period of the forum, and the consequent analysis of the postings uncovered some differences in usage of the forum depending on gender. Perhaps the most significant finding was that the female students were more willing to post their forum contributions from 6pm to 8am than their male counterparts, The female students also made more postings on weekends than their male counterparts, leading to the conclusion that the females were more prepared to use the online forum in a flexible manner.
Therefore when this author had the opportunity to introduce an online forum as the reflective piece of assessment within a practical Journalism subject, it provided a valuable opportunity to discover whether the female students would be willing to use computers flexibly, or whether they would still tend to use computers on campus and during "normal" working hours. As the coordinator of the third year News Production subject at Queensland University of Technology, I gave the online forum a weighting of 20% of the total mark for the subject. Students were required to submit a minimum of five postings over a minimum of two threads (from which they had four to choose) and were encouraged to not only submit original postings of their own, but to reply to postings made by other students. Because of the variety of practical skills that the students needed to hone in this capstone subject, students were warned that failure in any one piece of assessment would result in failure of the entire subject. This rule provided the added advantage of ensuring that students would participate in the forum.
A follow-up e-mail survey was then conducted and the respondents' replies were also examined according to gender, in order to determine whether there was a difference in attitude toward flexible learning among the students.
| Time | Male % n=129 | Female % n=325 | All % n=454 |
| 0000-0800 | 5.4 | 7.1 | 6.6 |
| 0801-1159 | 9.3 | 19.1 | 16.3 |
| 1200-1759 | 72.9 | 50.7 | 57.1 |
| 1800-2359 | 12.4 | 23.1 | 20.0 |
The most popular time for forum postings for both genders was during the weekday afternoons (57.1% in total), following the logical pattern of mainly full time students who have come onto the campus for classes and have taken the opportunity to use computer labs to make their contributions. However the males made more postings from midday to 6pm, presenting 72.9% of their contributions in the afternoons, compared with 50.7% for their female counterparts.
| Male % n=129 | Female % n=325 | All % n=454 | |
| Mon | 11.6 | 16.9 | 15.4 |
| Tue | 9.3 | 13.5 | 12.3 |
| Wed | 15.5 | 9.9 | 11.5 |
| Thu | 20.2 | 26.8 | 25.0 |
| Fri | 41.9 | 24.6 | 29.5 |
| Sat | 0.0 | 3.7 | 2.6 |
| Sun | 1.5 | 4.6 | 3.7 |
The large number of male postings on Friday is largely caused by the fact that almost half of those contributions were left until final two days of the forum (43.3%), while less than a third of the female students (31.7%) left their contributions until the last minute (Table 3).
| Male % n=129 | Female % n=325 | All % n=454 | |
| Second-last day | 10.8 | 14.3 | 12.9 |
| Last day | 32.5 | 17.5 | 21.8 |
| Total | 43.3 | 31.7 | 34.7 |
Normally at night when things were quiet after a day at work/uni, and I had some time to think. The forum fit in well with other commitments because I spread out the entries, therefore it only amounted to a small time and effort (F2).It appears that the students welcomed the ability to slot the assessable work into their busy lives, waiting until they got home from their paid work to contribute to the forum. Indeed, eight of the female respondents preferred to make most or all of their responses from home, citing convenience and comfort:As I said I work a lot, and am usually dashing from office to uni. It was great to be able to get something out of the way on a couple of evenings at home (F8).
All of my postings were made from home. That was the GREAT thing about it. I usually did them after dinner!!! Home is a much more pleasant environment (F6).However one of the female students pointed out that she did not have Internet access at home, while others cited technical difficulties while attempting to contribute to the forum from off campus:I made ALL my postings from home. I don't think I used a computer on campus all semester, apart from tutes. I work a full-time week for [a large company] and study a full time combined degree, anything I can do in the comfort of my bedroom, believe me I will do it there (F8).
I made about three postings from home which took so long because my computer is fairly outdated and takes ages to load anything to do with email or the internet... I posted two from uni and these were the answers I was much happier with because I could browse the net quite easily and was in my learning environment (F3).However the male respondents tended to prefer making their postings on campus. Of the five male students who responded to the e-mail survey (each identified by the letter M and a number), only two made postings from home, while a third made contributions from the campus and his workplace. The reasons for the two sets of home postings differ widely:I made the first six from home, and the final two from uni, when my computer got a virus toward the end of the semester. Obviously it was an assessment piece which was easier to complete if you had a computer at home, as the lines at uni are sometimes a mile long! (F5)
Well, I just did it when I was on the net anyway. Usually as an afterthought, like "well while I'm logged on, I might as well do some forum stuff" (M3).M3 is a young, single man who entered university straight out of high school. He is also a computer enthusiast who was running two Web sites at last count, and appears to have seen the forum work almost as an extension of his leisure time, ie the Internet for him has provided motivational power for his work (McManus, 2000). On the other hand, M5 is in a similar position to the female students already cited, trying to juggle his university commitments with other work and family responsibilities. However M5 was not the only student, male or female, to take a methodical approach to their work on the forum:I usually clear out my email and finalise any internet business around 10pm each night. What I'd usually do is print out the forum responses and read through them on the train going to work in the morning and scribble down some thoughts in the margin. I found the train ride to town was the only time of day I wasn't [at my paid job], attending uni, or feeding and bathing the children. I think if I ever had a therapist, they'd be on danger money. (M5)
I would look at the progress of the forums on a regular basis, and if there was an interesting point or one I didn't agree with I would post...I would mostly post when I was on campus during the week (M2).However the overall attitudes of the students toward the forum differed depending on gender. Students were asked the question: "Was there any particular aspect of the forum that you liked?" Of the 13 female respondents, seven cited the flexibility of the forum:I wanted to spread them out for several reasons: I wanted to see how my own point of view changed as I learnt other people's ways of thinking; it was a good way of responding to responses to my original messages; I never usually had the time or the concentration to post more than two messages at one time (M4).
I just wrote on my calendar a note to do one very second week, and would have a read of the forum every few days (F5).
Full-time University is always hard to fit in, when you're working and doing work experience. Being able to post things any time you like and choose when to do your assessment is great (F10).An equal number of female students stated that they had enjoyed the opportunity to discuss ideas and issues with their classmates (individual students gave more than one response to the question):It was perfect for Journalism students with our chaotic timetables because we could complete assessment at times suitable to us (F13).
I think you learn more talking and analysing, rather than memorising information.. [The forum] gave us all a chance to share what we had learnt over the three years and debate ethical considerations (F5).Of the male students, only one of the five respondents mentioned flexibility as a positive aspect of the forum:It was good to have some serious discussions about issues in our future profession and others' opinions, because it's not the stuff you tend to talk about in the pub (F10).
During the last semester of journalism, when deadlines were everywhere (print, online, TV, Radio), this made a welcome change (M2).Like all of the other male respondents, M2 concentrated on the level of communication that the forum allowed between himself and his classmates:
I also liked to debate the issues with other students, just to find out their opinions and how mine were different (M2).This concentration on "interactivity" by both male and female students is significant in the context of the News Production subject, as the forum continued until the end of the teaching semester, while formal lectures did not. Lectures ended after Week 6 of the 13-week semester, to enable the large group to break up into a number of smaller groups for a series of intensive practical activities in print, radio, television and online journalism. As a result, the students no longer had the opportunity to get together and discuss ideas as a large class group. Therefore apart from providing a flexible means of carrying out their assessment, the online forum helped the students to maintain a sense of group coherence, and to process ideas related to the subject (Sherry, 1998). At the same time, the use by M3 of the term "interactivity" shows that for him at least, the word does not simply mean a dialogue between user and computer (Sims, 1995), but instead means the use of a computer as a tool to facilitate dialogue with other people.The forum was terrific because it encouraged focussed and informed discussion about plying our trade (M1).
It was a very good way of finding out how other people in the course view the world of journalism... It was also a good opportunity to have your own say about given topics which then led to healthy debate via the forum (M4).
The interactivity was definitely a plus (M3).
The students also used a combination of computer and face to face interaction when taking part in the forum. One of the female students reported that she and some of her classmates would discuss and contribute to the forum threads while they were working on other projects in the computer labs on campus:
At uni ... a discussion about something ended up getting written as it was being talked about, quite an interesting process I noticed this happened quite often someone in the room would say "did you see what [so-and-so] wrote about? This is what I think" (M1).At first glance it appears encouraging that the female students were, on the whole, comfortable with the idea of putting their own ideas on the forum and responding to the ideas of others. Only one of the female respondents showed slight discomfort when she explained why she decided not to do all of her postings over a short period of time:
I also found I'm a bit self-conscious in an online environment I didn't want my name to be the most visible and I wanted my posts to seem intelligent, since anyone could read them. As usual I got a bit bogged down in the research I was doing for it (M10).This level of self-effacement from a high-achieving student could at first glance appear to be based on a fear that if she does not make her posts "intelligent", she could be ridiculed. In other areas of the Internet, including in MUDs and on e-mail lists, women have suffered intimidation and harassment, including sexual harassment, to the point where they are silenced (Spender, 1995, Dibbell, 1996). However in the case of my subject's online forum, it was relatively simple to ensure that such activities would not occur. In the first instance, QUT has a range of penalties for misuse of student Internet communication, including the suspension of the miscreant's e-mail privileges. In addition to those penalties, one of the requirements I wrote into the online forum was the "no flaming" rule anyone caught flaming would automatically fail the forum, and therefore the subject as a whole. Therefore it appears in this case that M10 simply wanted to get her postings "just right", in the same manner as a male student cited by Bender (1995).
Hence it appears that the forum was an area where participants could feel "safe" in putting their opinions across, because of the protection they received as students under University policy, and the more immediate threat of failure aimed at anyone who would seek to do them harm in this little corner of cyberspace. It could therefore be argued that forums and discussion groups in an academic context may help women gain confidence in an on-line environment before going out into the "wider" internet world. It must also be pointed out that online work can also help students of both sexes who are reserved in the class context: "it appears to be an effective communication vehicle for some students who are normally reluctant to talk in live settings" (Chism, 1998).
However there were negative aspects to the forum, as reported by the respondents. The major problem cited by the female students was what could be termed as "selfishness" on the part of some of their classmates:
The forum was meant to be interactive. While some people did respond to what you said, most made long independent contributions (F5).It appears therefore that some of the female students were frustrated at what they perceived to be a lack of response to their own contributions, so while they appreciated learning what their classmates thought, they wanted this learning to be more of a two-way street. Instead, some of the postings were created "almost in a vacuum, relatively isolated from the experience of [their] peers" (Barrett & Lally, 1999). Those who complained believed that the lack of responses from some of their classmates meant that those involved failed to "assume a variety of functional roles" which are needed for a full collaborative learning experience (Collins-Brown, 1999). However for the male students, carrying out research for the forum was more of a problem:A lot of people chose a topic without considering what the last person said or any other forum member (F6).
Searching the internet for examples to back up opinions wasn't always easy. I found myself doing only just above the bare minimum for assessment and this was a shame...(M2)The males' lack of concern over independent, "selfish" contributions from some of their classmates supports Philbin et al's (1995) finding that, unlike their female peers, male learners have more concern for themselves than for others in the learning environment. At the same time, the response of M2 indicates a desire to take a deep learning approach (Biggs, 1999), as does the response of F5, noted earlier: "I think you learn more talking and analysing, rather than memorising information.." However it appears that not all of their classmates had the same desire:I always find searching for references on the internet difficult, but I'm a bit slow when it comes to the net (M4).
Some issues became very repetitive because people had to do it for assessment and not because they necessarily felt like partaking in a particular argument (F9)I just rushed through it a little bit because I had a million other things going on and I knew I was close to finishing the degree (F12).
Those who took it seriously and posted across the semester would have benefited. But those who posted five messages the day before assessment wouldn't, but that's their loss (M4).
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| Author: Dr Cathy Jenkins, Lecturer in Journalism, School of Film, Media & Cultural Studies, Nathan Campus, Griffith University Qld 4111, Australia Phone (07) 3875 7434 Fax (07) 3875 7730 Email c.jenkins@mailbox.gu.edu.au Please cite as: Jenkins, C. (2001). The online forum as flexible assessment: Gender differences in participation. In L. Richardson and J. Lidstone (Eds), Flexible Learning for a Flexible Society, 349-356. Proceedings of ASET-HERDSA 2000 Conference, Toowoomba, Qld, 2-5 July 2000. ASET and HERDSA. http://www.aset.org.au/confs/aset-herdsa2000/procs/jenkins.html |