I'm not sure if we are going ahead with this approach or not. We really need Roy, to explain how he thinks his ideas mesh with the work we have already done. If they don't, then I think we have 2 research projects - Roy's longitudinal investigation (which I think could yield some very interesting and valuable results) and the in-depth investigation into the differences between bloggers and forum posters on the CCK08 course. I think the point about this research is that I suspect that there are not many, if any, courses that offer students the choice of where to communicate - so CCK08 provides us with a real opportunity to explore the reasons behind those choices, which could then inform online course design.
Whilst waiting for Roy's questions, I thought I would have a go at writing the statements to go with Matthias' comprehensive analysis of what might affect bloggers' and forum users' choices. So here are my thoughts below, which I'm prepared for us not to use at all if we decide to take a different approach. I have numbered them, so that you can see where the statements come from. You will see that where I think that the statements would overlap, I have combined them into one. You may not agree - so please add, edit or delete as you think necessary. And I'm also sure that there will be things that you have all said that I have not understood, so please do correct errors.
I see these statements as being accompanied by a Likert Scale of Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree (as posted by John), but I think there should also be a N/A (non applicable) category for those people who for one reason or another cannot answer the question. Here are the statements.
Jenny, what a huge amount of work it was to put this jigsaw puzzle together ! I reget now very much that I failed to copy the text with the numbers. So it was much more difficult to retain the sense of all the merged statements. Additionally, I discovered errors that I made long ago that unfortunately caused confusion, which I will indicate below.
Therefore I will at least mention each substantial change to ask if it was intentional or just my confusion.
2009-03-17 Trying to add subtopic headings again, see map.
(2009-03-19 integrated Roy's items 31 through 96)
Technology (all statements relate to the CCK08 course)
T1 Ease of posting / Technical expertise / Familiarity with the technology / Speed of accessibility
T001 I chose to communicate in the Moodle forums rather than through blogs, because I was already familiar with forums (T1, 42, 109)
T002 I didn’t have the time to organise a blog for the CCK08 course (T1, 124, 2)
I would not mind dropping either aspect, I just wanted to make sure that we are aware that there is a difference. For this "technical > familiar" cluster of questions, I think we should tease out the inclination to blog or moodle at any given moment, which would explain the tendency to choose the common denominator default (forum) even if both options are familiar and available. i. e., on the posting level, old #2. (The blog setup aspect old #124 lends itself to the second, longitudinal project).
T003 Blogging requires more effort than I wanted to make in the CCK08 course (T1, 71)
T004 The Moodle forum discussions were more easily accessible than the blog discussions (T1, 70)
T005 It was quicker to access recently discussed aspects and ideas of the course in the Moodle forums than in the blogs (T1, 19)
T2 Number of possible connections
T006 Moodle forum participation enabled connection with a greater number of people than blogging (T2, 75)
T007 Moodle forum participation ensured more readers of my posts than blogging (T2, 77)
T008 The Moodle forums offered a more efficient way of connecting with other course participants than blogging (T2, 121)
T009 I was more likely to receive responses to my posts in the Moodle forums than in a blog (T2, 81)
T010 I was more likely to receive feedback on my opinions in the Moodle forums than in a blog (T2, 123)
[T yet unassigned]
T011 I can find out more about the author of a post in a blog than in a Moodle forum (C2, 25)
Personal Connections (all statements relate to the CCK08 course)
P1 Sense of community / Inclusive/exclusive relationships / Proximity/closeness
P001 It was easier to form connections with other course participants in the Moodle forums than in the blogs (P1, 13)
P002 There was a greater sense of community between the Moodle forum participants than between bloggers (P1, 6, 76)
P003 I did not feel connected to the Moodle forum participants (P1, 49)
P004 I felt closer to other course participants in the Moodle forums than in the blogs (P1, 111; P2, 8, 14, 103)
P2 Strength of relationships (??)
P005 Connections between the bloggers were longer lasting than between Moodle forum participants (P2, 15, 48, 103, 141)
35 It was harder to form relationships that lasted beyond the end of the course in the CCK08 forums than it was in the CCK08 blogs = superseded old #15 I'm not sure that this one fits here
P3 Tone of communication / Establishing presence/voice
P006 The blogging community was more friendly than the Moodle forum community (P3, 43)
P007 There was a greater sense of mutual respect between bloggers (P3, 44, 7, 105)
31 There was less mutual respect between the CCK08 forum participants than between the CCK08 bloggers could we drop the CCK08?)
P008 The Moodle forums generated greater feelings of anxiety than blogging (P3, 11, 47)
P009 Bloggers are less likely to be criticised than Moodle forum participants (P3, 45, 97)
P010 I could not make my ‘voice’ heard in the Moodle forums (P3 66)
P011 I was able to establish a presence in the Moodle forums (P3, 88, 89)
P012 The Moodle forums attract participants who like to pontificate (P3, 106)
P013 Blogging ensured that my ‘voice’ was heard (P3, 57)
P4 Sparring/ Challenge
P014 The Moodle forum discussions were more challenging than discussions in the blogs (P4, 73, 116)
P015 There was more lively debate in the Moodle forums than in the blogs (P4, 74)
P016 The Moodle forum discussions generated greater feelings of excitement than the blogs (P4, 10)
[P yet unassigned]
P017 It is important to know something about the author of a post (C2, 25)
Conceptual Connections (all statements relate to the CCK08 course)
I think the opposite of the bloggers' trait of associating and linking and following distractions, is not just "focus". And moodlers, too, meander and succumb to distractions. But still, the difference is consistently perceivable, just hard to phrase. Forum lovers, in a way, content themselves in mentioning and shortly addressing the diverse aspects, to get their big picture round and delineated. We bloggers, in contrast, love to pick selected diverse aspects to follow them intensively, to grow the connections. The connections are addressed in C008 but the link to diversity is missing. (JM 180309 - yes this bit was hard)
C1 Location of ideas
C001 I preferred the Moodle forums to blogging because all the ideas being discussed were located in one place (C1, 17, 18)
C002 I preferred the linear discussion style of the Moodle forums than the dispersed discussion style of blogs (C1, 78)
C003 It was easier to locate information in the Moodle forums than in the blogs (C1, 85)
It was easier to track back and locate information in the Moodle forums (= old 85)
C2 Diversity of discussion/ideas / Convergence/divergence
C004 It was easier to discuss numerous related topics concurrently in Moodle forums than in the blogs (C2, 24)
C005 Discussion in the Moodle forums was more focussed and topic related than in the blogs (C2, 22)
C006 The links included in blog posts make it difficult to keep focussed on the course topic being discussed (C2, 23)
C007 It is important to me to know something about the author of an online post (C2, 25)
C3 Speed of conversation / Pace
[nothing left]
[C yet unassigned]
C008 Moodle forums enable the formation of increasingly strong conceptual connections, more than blogs
Learning (all statements relate to the CCK08 course)
[Yet unassigned]
L001 The pace of communication in the Moodle forums was too fast for effective learning (C3, 72, 3, 110; L2, 28)
Speed in technical terms is how quickly I can blog (because it's easy). Speed in terms of Learning is my own inner clock and pace that optimizes my learning outcome; this has nothing to do with connections among people and nothing with connections among concepts (at the most, it has something to do with the connection betwen my person and a concept to learn). Speed in personal connection terms, is what I wanted to cluster with the enjoyment of rapid interaction (I don't know a better word than sparring). Speed in terms of conceptual connections is the timeframe of the succession of topics, which may leverage preactivation, and which is a trade-off for slowness needed for reflection. I doubt if that was clearer ...
L002 Blogging allowed participants to engage with the course at their own pace (C3, 52, 54)
L1 Autonomy/control / Self-expression / Freedom of choice / Ownership
L003 The Moodle forums were more teacher-centric than the blogs (L1, 33)
L004 There were fewer opportunities for self-expression in the Moodle forums than in the blogs (L1, 34, 56, 55)
L005 Blogging allowed for greater personal control over learning than the Moodle forums (L1, 50, 51, 59, 60, 61, 62, 107)
L2 Reflection/Action / Theorist/Pragmatist
L006 The forum discussions were less reflective than the blog discussions (L2, 27)
L007 There was less time for reflection in the forum discussions than in the blog discussions (L2, 29, 53)
L008 (2007-03-017 Maybe John's 151-188 are missing because I linked them in very late?) (JM 180309 - sorry about this John. I'm not sure where these are now? I thought I had covered everything.)
Previously dropped items reclaimed by Roy
32 The CCK08 Moodle forum posts elicited stronger emotions than the CCK08 blog posts
= old 9 dropped because the unspecific "Emotions" heading did not seem not allow an interpretation as pro bloger or pro moodler.
52 Writing for my blog gave me more pleasure than writing in the Moodle discussion forums = old 58 dropped like 32 = old 9 above.
78 Writing my forum posts gave me more pleasure than writing in blogs = old 58 dropped like 32 = old 9 above.
54 I found it easier to understand the CCK08 blog posts than the Moodle forum posts = old 63 dropped because ambiguous whether Technical > Aggregation or Learning > challenge.
55 I didn’t feel I had anything to contribute to the Moodle forum discussions = old 65 dropped because ambiguous whether Personal > Incl/excl relationships or Learning > Audience/ Feedback.
57 The CCk08 bloggers often provided summaries of the weekly topics and this helped my learning = old 67 dropped because amibiguous if Personal > collaboration or Technical > Aggregation
92 I was able to make a greater contributions to the Moodle forums = old 90 dropped because anbiguous whether Conceptual > Quality (discarded anyway) or Learning > Audience/Feedback
60 The quality of posts in the blogs was higher than in the forums = old 82 dropped due to longer discussion about quality, see the Cmap ConcConnREfined.jpg.
63 There is more crafting of writing = old 104 dropped like above quality item.
89 The quality of posts in the Moodle forums was higher than on the blogs = old 82 dropped like above quality item.
88 There was more knowledge creation in the Moodle forums = old 80 dropped like above quality item.
95 There is less ‘navel gazing’ = old 86 dropped like above quality item. are there any cultural issues with this statement?
46 I could avoid the ‘loud forum voices’ = old 46 dropped by Jenny
62 There is greater opportunity for self-assessment = old 102 droppped by Jenny
74 I am excited when people bring lots of obviously related aspects to the table = old 21 dropped by Jenny
96 I don't want to be urged to follow the author through his linear assembly of digressions. (= old 132 dropped by Jenny) will this statement be understood
So, it IS in fact a leading question when it is mistakably phrased. But once it optimally expresses what a respondent (like myself) might think, isn't it a legitimate "I" question of the type John mentioned in his comments below? Maybe I have still not got the "leading questions" concept but I think we should try for maximum 7-point agreements and disagreements to test our hypotheses, no?
Thanks for the clarification. Would it be OK to split this into three statements? I prefer the explicit links of blogs. I prefer the thought connections of blogs. I prefer blogs when I found digressions in discussion. But these could be "blog' biasing. It is difficult to start with "I prefer not to"
I think leading question occurs when we use a "qualifier or strong feeling verb" like urge - which means someone wanting to convince or influence you, followed by someone's action. The use of a neutral verb like ask could be used instead. In the above case, you have explained your choice mainly because you don't want to be squeezed into linear tunnel of the thread in forum (as you have to read and digest all other threads to take them into account in your response). This may not be the case for blog discussion, as you think you are just answerable to the author who created the post, and not to others who responded to the blog post. These reasons might be better revealed in an interview or survey with MULTIPLE choice questions, rather than a statement of choice (normally only 1 preference over the other on 1 topic), so you could know the reason of that preference.
61 Blogs are more distributed, among different people and different opinions, and don’t tend to force consensus. Based on old 93 They are more distributed dropped by Jenny.
93 Forums are more like a conversation (Related to old 4 "It was easier to follow a CCK08 Moodle forum thread than a blog conversation" assigned to Technical > Aggregation which was dropped because it did not seem to allow a significant matching to either pro blogger or pro moodler (see very first Cmap questionnaire.jpg).