Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
line each Wednesday. The total discussion was recorded and made available soon
afterward on a dedicated newsgroup, so that missing students could read the
discussion.
•
Newsgroup
: We created a dedicated newsgroup for the case discussion. The newsgroup
was divided into five discussion areas, one for each question about the case, and one
for the recorded on-line discussions. Students were expected to post for each question
a short assignment consisting of a one-page Word
document.
Figure 1 summarizes the experimental design.
The evaluation of participation was based on the tracking tool in WebCT and on the
analysis of individual contributions to the discussion.
EVALUATION OF SYSTEM SATISFACTION
After all case discussions were finished, a questionnaire was completed by the
students. The questionnaire asked for a subjective evaluation of the efficiency of the system
and the satisfaction of the students with the system, by collecting opinions on specific
aspects of the system using a one- to five-point Likert scale. Two open-ended questions were
included that asked for the three main positive and three main negative aspects of the system
in order to collect qualitative evaluations of the system. We received 29 usable questionnaires
from the 38 students (76%). Responses to the relevant questions are shown in Table 1.
Participation
Several dimensions of participation were evaluated in the questionnaire, and particu-
larly, whether the system facilitated participation in the discussion (Howell-Richardson &
Figure 1. The experimental design
