The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there are differences in discussion ability, social efficacy, social presence, and learners’ satisfaction depending on the type of media for online discussion in middle school Korean classes. The ...
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there are differences in discussion ability, social efficacy, social presence, and learners’ satisfaction depending on the type of media for online discussion in middle school Korean classes. The independent variable in this study was the type of online discussion media (web community board, real-time text message, video conference), and the dependent variables were discussion ability, social efficacy, social presence, and satisfaction. The following research questions were established to achieve the purpose of the study.
First, is there a significant difference in learners' discussion ability according to the type of media for middle school online discussion (web community board, real-time text message, video conference)?
Second, is there a significant difference in learners' social efficacy according to the type of media for middle school online discussion (web community board, real-time text message, video conference)?
Third, is there a significant difference in learners' social presence according to the type of media for middle school online discussion (web community board, real-time text message, video conference)?
Fourth, is there a significant difference in the satisfaction of learners according to the type of media for middle school online discussion (web community board, real-time text message, video conference)?
In order to achieve the purpose of this study, an experiment was conducted with 4 first-year middle school classes located in Siheung, Gyeonggi Province. The students were divided into three groups, namely, Experimental Group I, which conducted discussion classes on the web community board, Experimental Group II, which had real-time text discussions, and Experimental Group III, which had video conference discussions, and participated in the research experiment. The pre-tests for discussion ability and the social efficacy were conducted in advance in order to confirm the homogeneity between groups, and no significant difference was found between the groups. Ten sessions of discussion classes were carried out over a total of 4 weeks and the post-tests for discussion ability and social efficacy, social presence test, and satisfaction test were conducted. One-way ANOVA was used to analyze whether there were significant differences between groups, and the Tukey post hoc test was used to carry out comparison analysis between the means for the groups that showed a significant difference.
The analysis results of this study are summarized as follows.
First, the mean discussion ability of students in the web community board discussion group, the real-time text discussion group, and the video conference discussion group were 3.67, 3.95, and 3.57, respectively and one-way ANOVA results showed that there was a statistically significant difference (F=5.216, p<.05). The post-hoc results showed that the group that conducted the real-time text discussion showed higher discussion ability than the group that conducted the video conference discussion, which was confirmed to be statistically significant.
Second, the mean social efficacy of students in the web community board discussion group, the real-time text discussion group, and the video conference discussion group was 3.65, 3.94, and 3.60, respectively, and the one-way ANOVA results showed that there was a statistically significant difference (F=3.169, p<.05). However, the post-hoc results did not show a statistically significant difference.
Third, the average social presence of the web community board discussion group, the real-time text discussion group, and the video conference discussion group was 3.74, 4.03, and 3.86, respectively, and the one-way ANOVA results presented that there was a statistically significant difference (F=3.237, p<.05). The post-hoc results showed that the group that conducted real-time text discussion scored a higher sense of social presence than the group that conducted the discussion on the web community board, which was confirmed to be statistically significant.
Fourth, the average satisfaction scores of the web community board discussion group, the real-time text discussion group, and the video conference discussion group were 3.85 points, 4.09 points, and 4.00 points, respectively, and as a result of one-way ANOVA, no statistically significant difference was found (F =1.864, p>.05).
The results of the study confirmed that real-time text discussion has higher score on discussion ability compared to video conference and is more effective in terms of social presence than web community board discussion.
In real-time text discussion, students can actively present their opinions without psychological burden, express their opinions in various ways and engage in various thinking activities are related to the results of discussion ability, and middle school students use real-time text messages as their main tool to establish social relationships, and because they freely communicate and respond right away, it can be seen that they showed high results in social presence.
Based on this study, the following follow-up studies were suggested.
First, future studies should compare the effects between the types of online discussion media through various dependent variables, such as discussion messages, interactions, and problem-solving abilities, which were not addressed in this study. Second, it is necessary to conduct research on various types of discussion classes using real-time text, the medium most familiar to middle school students. Third, although it has not been sufficiently confirmed in this study, since the video conferencing method has been universally used in middle and high school classes since COVID-19, it is necessary to further explore the on/offline video conferencing discussion class strategy and practical application cases.