online communication and equal participation

On page 363 the Cheney et al. state, "In addition to its ability to stimulate a strong task-orientation in work groups, computer-mediated communication seems to facilitate more equal participation among organizational members." I've found this to be the case with online classes and my colleagues who teach online agree. In person classes privilege students who better speakers, are more outgoing, and more comfortable in a dynamic communication environment where there's often little time to reflect on what others have said. Some of my online students have emailed saying that the online class was the first one they spoke out in.

I've observed this in faculty discussions as well. When we move part of our work online, as with editing documents on a wiki, one or two people are less able to dominate the conversation and we tend to make better decisions--because everyone has an equal opportunity to participate (whether or not they take that opportunity is up to the individual). With in person meetings, there's only so much time, and it can be difficult to divide up the talk time in any equitable way. Asynchronous online communication also gives faculty time to think about what others have said before posting their comments or making changes in a document. In developing the department's new major and graduate program (to be implemented in Fall 2009) faculty found the wiki indispensable. We met in person as well, but much of the hard work took place online.

Online communication doesn't necessarily lead to all group members (or all students in a class) participating equally. But in my experience asynchronous online communication levels the playing field so everyone has the opportunity to participate without worrying about a few people dominating the conversation. Although individuals can send many lengthy emails or write many long posts on a discussion board, other participants can delete or skip those messages--the lengthy messages don't take away from others' ability to participate. With in person meetings, if a few people use more than their share of talk time, there simply isn't enough time for others to have their say.

~ Professor Cyborg