Abstract

With the introduction of Internet-based education such as online learning and virtual campuses, there are increased interests and demands for electronically delivering educational contents in comparison to the traditional educational methods. Our preliminary study showed that approximately 50% of virtual groups formed online for the scope of collaborative learning encountered barriers that prevented them from forming an effective learning team and making satisfactory progress toward reaching the learning objectives. In this study, we asked the undergraduate students, who were the members of the online learning team, to work on the given discussion topics through the use of emails and threaded discussion boards. Then, we investigated the roles played by two electronic communication medium during the virtual discussion with respect to the learning outcome. We also studied how information was shared amongst the virtual learning team members. The results of our study showed that the email based online learning had the advantage of individualized and friendly information transfer. However, it also caused certain difficulty in exchanging ideas due to the one-sided nature of the email-based communication. On the other hand, the threaded discussion board provided easier information sharing and broadcasting, which enabled active participation by the virtual team members. However, it also had the disadvantage of difficulty in accurate information conveyance and duplication of the posted information. In summary, our study results showed that there was a high correlation between the characteristics of the electronic communication medium and the decision that the online learners made regarding which medium to use. There was a high correlation between the type of the electronic communication medium and the online learners’ experiences in using these media.