Paul PeacheyPaper presented at the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, University of Manchester, 16-18 September 2004

An addictive property of the discussion forums of the

VLE as perceived by students undertaking a Web-

based course

1

AbstractThis study examines the motivation of students involved in a 10-week, fully Web-based course to participate in the asynchronous discussion forum as part of the virtual learning environment (VLE). The course was part of a staff development initiative involving both lecturing and support staff based on campus and at partner colleges spread throughout Wales. The 22 online students along with the tutor amassed over 2000 posted messages. Many of these students spoke of an ‘addictive attraction’ to the discussion forum, which enticed them to visit the online conference regularly and sometimes at atypical hours of the day. Although the course handbook forwarded recommendations that the students allocate approximately two hours per week to the course, many students claimed that they were logging on to the discussion forum up to five times this figure. The methodology involved a triangulated approach and the content of the posted messages were examined to seek actual comments relating to this perceived addictive property. The statistical data available from the VLE (Blackboard) program were also analysed. In addition, a number of the students were personally interviewed to further inform the study. The results of the research corroborated the students’ claims that this property did exist.

Key terms:Online; discussion forums; virtual learning environment; Internet addiction. Open and distance learning.

2

Introduction

There is a good case for argument that advances in terms of both the software and hardware

components of information and communications technology (ICT) continue to diminish the

barriers of time and geographical distance. This has enabled many educational and training

providers to consider the option of delivering courses or course modules via the medium of

the Internet and various authors and professionals in this field argue that there is an increasing

trend in the delivery of online courses (e.g Bullen, 2000; Fredricksen et al, 2000; Hamilton-

Pennell, 2002; Palloff and Pratt, 2001; Salmon, 2000). Online availability of courses also

offers new possibilities in widening participation. Brown (2001:18) asserts that it ‘meets the

needs of an expanding pool of non-traditional students’. As this relatively new phenomenon

plunges headlong into a new era in education, Laurillard (2000:133) warns of the danger of

embracing the technology without adequately addressing the pedagogy and asserts that

technology is ‘rarely designed for education’ and Peters (2000) warns of the danger of

completely departing from the traditional distance learning methods in fully adopting the new

digital paradigm that the online environment begs.

This paper relates to a case study involving a 10-week online course as part of a staff

development initiative delivered by the University of Glamorgan, which took place during the

autumn period of 2003. The course involved a significant computer-conferencing element in

the form of asynchronous discussion forums. During the course, a number of students

discussed an ‘addictive’ attraction to the asynchronous discussion forum whereby some

students felt the need to log onto the conference whenever they had the opportunity to do so,

if only to see what was going on. In addition, there was statistical evidence that some of these

students were participating in the conference very late or during the early hours of the

morning despite having not fallen behind the recommended schedule. Furthermore, a total of

3

2001 messages were posted to this forum, which is atypical of these courses and represented

the highest quantity of postings to date. The decision was made to investigate the claims made

by these students with regards to this addictive attraction in order to either dismiss it or to

corroborate the argument that it did occur.

The context of the study

As part of the Entrepreneurial Action Plan (EAP) initiative delivered by the National

Assembly for Wales and funded through the European Union’s Objective One strategy, the

University of Glamorgan formed ‘Enterprise College Wales’ (ECW). The main aim of this

initiative was to contribute to the regeneration of businesses in Wales and involved a major

investment in e-learning. ECW is thought to be one of Europe’s largest online learning

initiatives and over 1000 students have already undertaken these courses since 2001. The

courses were delivered almost entirely online by lecturers employed at the University of

Glamorgan and partner colleges throughout Wales. However, at the start of the project, these

lecturers who were to present the courses had little or no experience in e-learning. It was

therefore decided that they should embark on a training programme that included training of

the software to be used and also training in the pedagogical model that differs from the typical

lecturing role to that of online moderation in the light of a compelling argument that a

reappraisal of the role of the tutor is required in this relatively new learning environment (Cox

et al, 2001; Jones, 2004; Salmon, 2000). The University of Glamorgan subsequently enlisted

the help of Gilly Salmon of the Open University UK who had devised a staff development

programme that has become colloquially known as the ‘5-stage e-moderating model’ (refer to

Fig. 1). This model was adopted by the University of Glamorgan and represented the

backbone of the training programme. The chosen virtual learning environment (VLE) that

would provide the communications platform for the courses was BlackboardTM.

4

Fig. 1 The five-stage e-moderating model (Salmon, 2000)

The first of these online courses took place in 2001 and was entitled ‘The Emoderating

Online Course’. To date, 14 of these relatively short e-moderating courses have been

delivered and approximately 250 students have successfully completed this training. The

courses were initially designed to be completed within a 6-week period but the duration of

the course was later extended to 10 weeks in order to allow more flexibility for the online

students. The mean number of students who enrolled on these courses is 16.64 (SD = 6.80)

and the mean completion rate of the students is 73.14% (SD = 15.61%).

5

The particular course that provides the focus for this paper took place over a 10-week period

between the months of October and December 2003. The cohort involved 22 students (10

male, 12 female) and the ages of these students ranged from mid twenties to late fifties. The

group comprised:

University of Glamorgan lecturers: 9

Partner College lecturers: 10

Master’s Degree student: 1

University administration staff: 1

University research assistant: 1

The course began with a full day of induction training in the face-to-face setting. This

induction included a morning session whereby the course outline was explained and included

a number of ice-breaking activities that represented the first stage in the process of building an

online learning community among the students. Many authors agree that the existence of a

learning community increases student retention (e.g. Palloff and Pratt, 2001; Rovai, 2002;

Singh, 2004), which tend to be generally poor in online and distance learning courses

(Potashnik and Capper, 1998). There is also an argument that the creation of an online

community may increase students’ motivation (Vonderwell, 2003), learning potential,

(Garrison and Anderson, 2003; Rovai, 2001; Ryan et al, 2000; Wegerif, 1998; Wenger, 1999)

and serves to combat possible feelings of isolation (Gibbs, 1995; Haythornthwaite et al, 2000;

Lake, 1999; Rovai, 2001).

It is believed that initial face-to-face contact constitutes an important element in the

community-building process by allowing the students to get to know each other a little during

these early stages. It is also thought that this face-to-face session helps to generate a degree of

6

rapport between the e-moderator1 and the students in addition to reducing initial anxiety that

the students often feel when posting their first messages to the discussion board (Jones and

Peachey, 2004). Mason (2002) argues that face-to-face contact is one of the most important

features of an online course, but Salmon (2000) offers an opposing view believing that face-

to-face meetings should be avoided in the online environment. During this initial induction

session, the students were obliged to complete all of the online tasks required of the first stage

of the 5-stage model. Technical difficulties that the students might experience are

immediately addressed by the e-moderator. A further face-to-face tutorial was held

approximately halfway through the programme and although the primary objective of this

meeting was to help to sustain the motivation of the students, it also allowed for discussion of

any problematic issues that may have arisen to date.

The students had to complete 34 pre-ordained online tasks, otherwise known as ‘e-tivities’,

that are undertaken entirely within the asynchronous online discussion forum of the VLE.

These e-tivity tasks were designed in accordance with the socio-constructivist model based

primarily on the theories of Vygotsky (1978) and Wenger (1999) and included a significant

element of reflective practice as forwarded by Schön (1983). The framework for the design

of the e-tivity tasks was provided by the criteria recommended by Salmon (2002) and each e-

tivity was designed in alignment with the objectives that relate to each distinct stage of

Salmon’s 5-stage pedagogical model. The stages are sequential in format and the students

were allowed a fortnight to complete each stage of the model beyond Session 1 with an extra

fortnight allocated for an obligatory written end-of-course reflective assignment task. The e-

tivity tasks of stages 3, 4 and 5 were also subject to assessment that focused on the quality of

the messages, in terms of critical thinking, that were posted to the discussion board of the

VLE by the students as a response to an opening thread posted by the e-moderator.

1 This term coined by Salmon (2000) to define the online tutor.

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The quantity of postings and size of the messages did not feature as part of the assessment

process and the students were pre-warned that persistent posting of excessively long messages

or exhibiting overwhelming online activity could result in a deduction of the available marks

since this was thought to represent poor e-moderating practice. The students were also partly

assessed on their ability to help other students on the course, which requires interaction. It

was believed that this strategy would not only represent good practice in online working but

may also help to build a vibrant online learning community that was regarded as vital if the

socio-constructivist framework that underpins the pedagogy for the course was to be

effective. Each discussion forum was given a heading from ‘Session 1’ to ‘Session 5’, which

directly related to the five stages of Salmon’s model. Rovai (2001, 2002) refers to Hare and

Davies (1994) in describing means of interaction as being either ‘task-driven’ or ‘socio-

emotional’. The e-moderator encouraged the students to direct the postings to the appropriate

forums with socio-emotional interaction directed to a special ‘Cybercafe’ forum that was

created specifically for this purpose. Despite this, it transpired that many ‘chat’ messages

were posted outside of the Cybercafe. The layout of the forums is shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 The Blackboard TM conference menu

8

As previously stated, the aim of this research was to establish whether or not this ‘addictive’

property as perceived by the students is likely to have materialised during the course. It was

believed that comments by the students does not manifest itself as evidence that such a

phenomenon occurred especially considering the unreliability aspect of ‘perception’ as a

means of measurement. It is important to acknowledge that the focus of this research was not

intended to prove that this phenomenon had in fact occurred but rather to either dismiss it or

to corroborate these claims that it did occur. The Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus (2002)

describes the term ‘addicted’ as, ‘devoted to a particular interest or activity’. It is assumed that

any definition of the term ‘addiction’ as used in this context of the online discussion forum is

highly likely to take a very different meaning to any generality as found in a dictionary. The

terms ‘addictive attraction’ are used throughout this paper since these were the terms used by

the students in the absence of an ideal term to describe the property.

Research methods

The study was underpinned by BERA’s Revised Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research

(2004) and appropriate permission was sought prior to any reference to the students in this

paper. Confidentiality is fully maintained with all of the students involved allocated a coded

letter of the alphabet. A triangulation of research methods was employed that was believed to

counter the weaknesses of each method used.

‘… there is always a danger that research findings will reflect, at least in part, the

method of inquiry. In the best of all worlds, your own research design should bring in

more than one research method to bear on the topic’.

Babbie (2004:113)

9

The content of each of the messages posted by the students to the discussion forums was

analysed qualitatively through reading and identifying comments that were believed to be

relative to the research study. This information was augmented by the information drawn

from a series of semi-structured interviews conducted with some2 of the students. As part of

the course requirements, the students were obliged to complete an end-of-course evaluation

questionnaire that is part of the continuous improvement strategy for the course. These

questionnaires were examined to identify any information that might be useful to the research.

Finally, quantitative statistical data mainly derived from the BlackboardTM software were also

included.

It must be understood that the researcher was also the e-moderator for the course. This

enabled the researcher to draw on his experience and deeper understanding of the issues

involved to re-direct the research as appropriate and discern emergent themes. It must also be

acknowledged that during the interviews, the students’ accounts may have been distorted by

their wish not to disappoint the researcher (Hara and Kling, 1999). However, in both cases,

the researcher endeavoured to detach himself as much as possible from possible pre-

conceptions and bias.

Data results and analysis

According to the end-of-course evaluation questionnaires that the students were obliged to

complete, the satisfaction rating of the course scored highly although these questionnaires

were distributed only to those students who successfully completed the course. The apparent

success of the course was undermined due to the disappointing attrition rate of 46%. Informal

discussions with some of the students who withdrew suggested that the overwhelming effect

of the masses of posted messages was a significant deterrent and negatively affected their

2 Limitations in resources restricted the number of interviews that could be conducted and as a result only 7 of the 12 students who successfully completed the course were interviewed.

10

motivation to continue the course. These students also stated that once they had fallen behind,

they found it was impossible to catch up.

‘…I cleared everything on Friday afternoon - and have come back in here today to

find another 100+ messages!! It is a bit much for a Monday afternoon...’

Student ‘O’ posted Oct 13th 2003

The 10 students who failed to complete had posted a total of 290 messages, the e-moderator

posted a total of 378 messages and the 12 students who completed the course posted 1333

messages. These 12 completers each posted a mean quantity of 111 messages, which

approximately doubles the estimated minimum requirement to pass the course. The females

who completed the course posted 786 messages and the males posted 547 messages. The

mean number of messages posted by the female students who completed the course was 131

(SD = 57.18) and the mean number of messages posted by the male students who completed

the course was 91 (SD = 48.67). The highest contributor (female) posted 229 messages to the

discussion board. Of the students who withdrew, 6 were female (of 12) and 4 were male (of

10) and therefore 50% of the females and 40% of the males decided to withdraw from the

course. The e-moderator participated only when required to do so but was nonetheless

relatively active on the course having posted 378 of the total 2001 messages (including

postings to the Cybercafe).

Session 1 Session 2 Session 3 Session 4 Session 5

16 112 86 80 71

Table 1 Postings by the e-moderator per stage

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As can be seen in Table 1 and Fig. 3, the postings made by the e-moderator reduced from

Session 2 onwards as outlined by Salmon’s 5-stage model whereby the students require less

intervention by the e-moderator.

E-moderator participation levels

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

1 2 3 4 5

Stage

Qty

pos

ted

mes

sage

s

Fig. 3 Participation levels of the e-moderator per stage

The relatively low participation level of Stage 1 is due to the nature of the induction session.

Here, the whole of this stage is completed during the face-to-face induction session and the e-

moderator is physically present to guide the students through the stage.

Session 1 Session 2 Session 3 Session 4 Session 5

224 494 444 478 275

Table 2 Total number of messages posted per session

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Fig. 4 Total activity of the discussion forum per session

The graphical profile of Fig. 4 is typical of previous e-moderating courses. The quantity of e-

tivity tasks increases at Session 2 and hence the quantity of messages posted by the students

also increases. There are fewer e-tivities in Session 5 and hence the profile of the graph dips

at this point. It is estimated that the minimum quantity of postings required to complete the 34

e-tivities is approximately 45 – 50. To add further input to the research, the mean number of

words used per message was counted. This investigation produced an interesting outcome as a

distinct linear pattern emerged. Refer to Table 3 and Fig. 5.

Session 1 Session 2 Session 3 Session 4 Session 5

52 95 103 118 162

Table 3 Mean word count per message per session

13

Words per message per session

020406080

100120140160180

Session1

Session2

Session3

Session4

Session5

No. o

f wor

ds p

er p

ostin

g

Fig. 5 Mean word-count per message per session

Fig. 6 Coded representation of the individual activity levels of the students

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The total quantity of messages posted by each student was counted and recorded. These data

were then graphically arranged in a decreasing arrangement as seen in Fig. 6. The objective of

this investigation was to determine whether certain individuals appeared to be excessively

posting messages, as there was concern that students who were posting excessively to the

discussion forums might be distorting the results. The remarkable uniformity of the graph

profile implies that there were no particular individuals who appeared to have excessively

posted messages to the discussion forums. The dotted bars of Fig. 6 represent students who

spoke of an addictive effect of the discussion forum, the chequered bars represent students

who completed the course but did not use the terms ‘addictive attraction’ in their messages

and the lined bars represent students who failed to complete the course. The horizontal white

dotted line represents the approximate minimum quantity of messages that needs to be posted

in order to complete the e-tivity tasks for the whole programme.

Students’ comments in the discussion forum

The following examples refer to some of the actual comments made by the students in the

discussion forums:

‘…hhhmmmm very addictive isn’t it?’

Student ‘K’, posted on Oct. 3rd 2003

‘Yes this is getting rather addictive for me too. I actually try to make a point of

logging in every day. I didn't think I'd find the time but I'm motivated to seek out the

opinions of others on what's becoming an interesting journey.’

Student ‘Q’, posted on Oct. 3rd 2003

‘Yes [Student Q], the same with me...I'm snatching every moment of the day to

make sure that I'm not missing anything...’

15

Student ‘V’, posted on Oct. 3rd 2003

‘… I think I am beginning to get addicted to e-mods, it’s the first thing I think about

when I wake up!!!!!!!!!!’

Student ‘A’, posted on Nov. 28th 2003

‘… I have found this experience so far quite addictive and I’m motivated to get online

whenever I have the odd half hour or so.’

Student ‘Q’, posted on Nov. 5th 2003

‘… but Bb (Blackboard) is strangely addictive and I end up logging in at all times. If

I post a message, I find myself logging in even more regularly as I am eager to see

what the response will be.’

Student ‘M’, posted on Nov. 10th 2003

‘I think we all spend far more than the suggested two hours, but as you and [Student K]

say it is strangely addictive ….’

Student ‘P’, posted Nov. 11th 2003

‘… Perhaps I could mention the addictiveness of the program - because it is so easy

to get the Bb bug ….. Perhaps there should be a winding down period or a therapy

group to ease us gently and bring us down safely off the Blackboard interface!!!!!

…’

Student ‘M’, posted on Nov. 23rd 2003

Further relative comments were also made outside of the discussion forum:

‘… I read somewhere that some see it as similar to tuning in regularly to your

favourite TV programme. I would have to agree …’

16

Student ‘T’, in end-of-course reflective assignment, Dec. 2003

‘As the e-learning community began to ‘gel’ it became ‘addictive’ to participate

whenever and however time would allow ….’

Student ‘V’, end-of-course evaluation questionnaire, Dec. 2003

Principal lecturer Haydn Blackey of the University of Glamorgan referred to a comment made

by one of his own students whilst e-moderating an online course run by the Open University:

‘Not going into the conference was like coming off an addictive drug. I was at work

wondering what new insights tonight would bring. I’d rush to the PC when I came

in.’

Cited in Salmon (2000:15)

Experiences such as these are not confined only to students. Derek Rowntree (1995) of the

Open University also appeared to experience this phenomenon:

‘I was struck by how I’m still in touch with the conference even when away from my

computer and busy with other activities. Somewhere in my unconscious I continue

to debate and new lines of argument keep occurring to mind unbidden. And it is

always so tempting to take just one more peep at the screen to see if another

participant has come up with something new or built upon the last message one

posted oneself’.

Cited in Salmon (2000:18)

Times of postings

The time and date of posting of individual messages to the discussion board of the VLE by

the students are recorded by the statistical features of the BlackboardTM program.

17

Fig. 7 Times of postings – (all postings)

The graph of Fig. 7 clearly indicates that many students posted messages to the discussion

board well into the evening. However, this graph includes students who withdrew from the

course and also includes the postings made by the e-moderator.

Discussion

Rheingold (1995) highlights an addictive effect in his experiences of the ‘WELL’, a

discussion forum created in the early eighties:

‘ …. you could count on at any time of day to be online. We often joke about the

addictive qualities of the WELL. And there always seem to be several nonjoking

discussions about WELL addiction going on in different parts of the WELL.‘

Rheingold (1995:33)

18

0

50

100

150

200

250

Qty

of p

ostin

gs

9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 1 3 5 7

Hour of day

Rheingold spoke also of the addictive effects of a Multi-User Dungeon (MUD) claiming that

such addiction was an inherently natural characteristic of human beings and suggested that the

MUD simply represented another form of communication. Rheingold reminded us that

humans seek this since birth. Furthermore, Race (1993:21) asserts that ‘to learn is to be

human’.

It is important to acknowledge that these experiences are likely to bear little resemblance to

the topic of Internet addiction, which has been defined as a psychological disorder by some

authors (e.g. Hansen 2002) although Griffiths (1998) asserts that there is little empirical

evidence that Internet addiction actually exists. The threaded discussions of the VLE might be

considered a very different context, but perhaps some parallels may be drawn:

‘Many of them [interviewed adolescents] were addicted to the messages and activity

on the Internet, but not by the Internet as a medium per se’.

Tsai and Lin (2003:649)

Due to the nature of the phenomenon, it might be agued that any attempt to measure this

addictive property may be extremely problematic. Indeed, it might be difficult to identify the

addictive component. For example, it could be related to companionship, interest in the

discussion topic, the motivating effect of receiving a response to a contribution, a

combination of these and other issues, etc.

Despite the difficulties, Chou (2001) considers ‘user time’ as a potential measurement of

Internet addiction although stresses that this should not be used as the sole measurement tool.

All of the students who experienced an addictive attraction to the discussion forums admitted

to spending at least double the recommended allocation of online time with one student

claiming that he was actually investing around 10 hours per week just reading and replying to

19

the masses of posted messages. Many students also claimed that they spent additional hours

during the day thinking about the issues that emerged from the discussion threads and some

would then return to the discussion board with a response that had been given some deep

thought. The potential to leave the conference and deliberate over the issues raised before

constructing an articulated response is a main benefit in asynchronous working (Doherty,

1998; Laurillard, 2002).

Conclusions

The research could find no evidence that contradicts the claims by the students that they

experienced this addictive attraction to the discussion boards. There is no implication of a

correlating factor due to a myriad of variables although some of the findings are interesting.

The following statistics were taken from the interview transcripts involving all the students

who spoke of an addictive attraction to the discussion forums.

Isolation: 100% of the students said that they did not experience any sense of isolation during

the course, in fact, one student joked [student Q] that he felt isolated when he was not online.

Online community: 100% of the students felt that an online community had formed.

Integration into the community: 100% of the students said that they felt an integral part of the

online community.

Hours invested in the course: 100% of the students claimed that they spent far more hours

online that the course recommended with one person claiming that he invested over 5 times

this recommended figure.

20

Satisfaction with the course: 100% of the students said that they enjoyed the experience

despite the demands in terms of workload.

It is concluded that the students’ claims of a sense of addictive attraction to the discussion

board were completely valid although the reasons remain a mystery. However, this research

does provide evidence that an attractive pull towards the discussion forum can and does occur

in the VLE. This may contain many benefits if it can be harnessed including students’

satisfaction, motivation, camaraderie, learning potential and, ironically, student retention. The

paper calls for further research specifically into this phenomenon.

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Author: Paul Peachey

Contact address:

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School of Business

Department of Enterprise and Economic Development

University of Glamorgan

Pontypridd

CF37 1DL

Email: ppeachey@glam.ac.uk

Telephone: 01443 483741

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