UMass Boston, College of Management

Lisa Fitzgerald

Brian High

Wei Zhang

Motivating Students to Build an Online Learning Community: Experience from a Blended Class

Online Learning Communities• The Use of Course Websites

– Download Center– Communication Center– Community Center

A self-sustaining learning community driven by students

Interactions between students are important Especially important for MBA students

Research Question

• What motivate students to build the community?

• How effective are they?

Class Setting

• MSIS611, Knowledge Management– College of Management, 33 graduate students

– How organizations “manage” what they know

– Students are required to think, not to learn

– Draw heavily from students’ working experience

– Highly discussion oriented

Class Setting

• Online discussion required, 15 points– Graded based on quality, quantity, and regularity of contributing

– Each message graded by instructor based on the quality of the message

– Each message can earn up to 4 points

• WebCT, Online Discussion Board– 468 messages in 56 threads

Data Collection and Analysis• Survey with both quantitative and

qualitative questions

• Student-led in-class discussions

• Preliminary analysis from answers to qualitative questions and in-class discussions conducted by student leaders

Motivations

• Passion about learning– Genuine interests in the subject

• Rational self-interests– Grades

• Reputation

• Reciprocity

Wenger, 1998; Davenport & Prusak 1996; Wasko & Faraj 2000, 2005

Preliminary Results

• Motivations– Accumulating points

“I’m still acquiring my 15 points …”“the grade incentive drove me initially, but I

ended up getting more out of it”– Reciprocity

To know what others were thinking To corroborate or oppose others’ position

– Genuine interests in the subject To post more opinionated messages to stir

up debates

Preliminary Results

• Motivations– Online environment less intimidating, “safer” “…Basically I am little shy to speak up in class

so I can express my thoughts in online discussion”

Easier to disagree– Easier to express oneself

Time-wise, more flexible More time to organize and present thoughts Easier to incorporate others’ opinions

– To develop relationships with/trust toward fellow students - Community

Preliminary Results

• Barriers– Topic policy that prevents students from posting messages before class meetings

– Time constraints Difficult to keep up

– Uncomfortable with unstructured online discussions Not knowing whether a topic is appropriate

or not

Implications

• The usefulness of online discussion board for building an online learning community

• A more comprehensive motivation model• The relational development in online learning

communities• Interaction design more than interface design

– Faculty’s role– Structured vs. Unstructured – Formal vs. Spontaneous

Next …

• Quantitative analysis

• Correlate motivational factors with participation pattern – To read or to contribute– To start a new thread or to reply

• The effects of different motivational factors on the effectiveness of online learning communities