Students Participation and Perception in Threaded Online Discussion

Many terms used for distance learning utilizing internet namely, on-line learning, e- learning, internet-enable learning, virtual learning, virtual classroom or web based learning. One of the uses of it is for online discussion using online threaded portal. Using online threaded discussion, the study aims to find out the participation and perspective of the students in using online media to conduct a discussion. The research chooses Muhammadiyah University of Malang’s students as the participants. The students’ participation was determined by the level of interactivity of the students during discussion, yet the perspective was compiled through the questionnaire administered. This study applied quantitative method to seek the students’ participation by adopting Thomas’ framework to count the level of interaction in each message and further this data will be explained qualitatively. The result of the study found that the percentage of the students commenting on threaded online discussion is still low. Out of 20, only 9 commented in the first group whereas the second group from 23 students only 20 who join the discussion. Furthermore, the majority of the students hold negative perception toward threaded discussion.

Keywords:

Threaded online discussion , Distance Learning , participation , perception