Computer-Mediated Conferencing: Grounded Guidelines

Student and staff voices

There was so much information that I was trying to deal with on the course that it was quite hard actually to read through it all and to have the time to think about it, then follow the debate enough that I could put my own ideas back in. So I guess that is probably why I lost track a bit.

Because I saw the other people sending messages and messages and messages I felt that you must show that you are there. You must show that you are leaving a message, so I sent something. I had received the same message as about our low participation, so it was obvious that we had to collaborate. Even if we didn't like it or we didn't find it worth while.

For example, I would like to hear the other point of view, but most of the times I didn't like to comment on them, because if they weren't - I didn't find the point for to look through. I mean, all of us had read the same stuff, so we had almost the same opinion about things. So why should you send feedback to someone else, because all if it was based on the same stuff .

To invent? To say something myself that I wouldn't say if I was completely free. For example, the only time I had participated out of free will was when we received those messages about low participation, and then we tried to defend ourselves. By saying that what's the point of participating if you do not have anything serious to say, or if you don't like what you have to say. And it was the only time that I really logged in with interest to see what the others had said, and the only time that I wrote a message out of personal need, let us say.

I became a lot less precious about it (email). To begin with, I was quite concerned about these emails I would send to members of staff, how they were worded and things, it was much more like, I suppose, a letter, and that's probably what I was thinking when I wasn't putting stuff up on here (the Web forum). But by the end it didn't matter. They only look at it once, and I would just send off quickly what I was thinking. I didn't have time anyway, as well. And so now I've got over that, it's an incredibly useful tool. I can just sit and, I don't know, shoot off something without having to run and find the phone, and get hold of them. And when they're on the phone they have to stop doing what they are doing and have a word with you, and maybe they don't want to.

It's got to the point now where I pretty much assume that everyone is on email. And they're not really that formal about it. My thinking is that they would prefer a quick and to the point no-messing email which just says "Here's a problem" than some long-winded thing - which is what I used to produce some very carefully worded thing.

I didn't actually - all I ever did was read it. Quite often I meant to, I just didn't have the time. I think I felt that I shouldn't just fling something up there; I should ... it should be quite considered, and so there would never be enough time to properly do that. Now, I think I would be a lot happier just putting what's in my mind up there, but I was probably a little too precious about what I was going to say.

I was quite bad and I didn't actually put some things onto it; although I kept up to date with it quite well. Following some of the threads and things...

I think probably - I had things to say but - I think I was often a little bit - I had to get over that feeling of putting my ideas up in front of the class. I was probably a little bit perfectionist about it for a while, and then there was always so much other work going on, that I found it hard. But it was interesting to follow the debates - definitely. It was nice to hear what my peers had to say about things.

A friend of mine was really quite into it - put a lot of things on it. So, at his prompting every now and then - every few weeks - I would have a quick look to see what was going on.

Quite chatty. Like sending an email to your friend about something, I suppose. Maybe with a bit of academic formalism in there. Or maybe that how it comes out when you talk about these things. Maybe part of the reason I didn't put things up was that I was tempted to get this ... my theory of everything, so that I could present it, and I could put it up there, but because I was still thinking about what I was thinking about, I was never ready to make it public.

I never - not never, but I don't think that it is more than two or three times, that I sent a message to the "cafe". It is a struggle for me to try to express myself in English , and especially as far as everyday language is concerned, I am not always secure about the style, about the exact meaning of the slang words, so I wasn't so friendly in the Cafe - I almost never liked being there. I almost never read the messages there.