"I'd be so much more comfortable posting anonymously": Identified versus anonymous participation in student discussion boards
Academic staff members encourage university students to use online student discussion boards within learning management systems to ask and answer questions, share information and engage in discussion. We explore the impact of anonymity on student posting behaviour. An online survey was completed by...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Published: |
ASCILITE
2013
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| Online Access: | http://ascilite.org.au/ajet/submission/index.php/AJET/article/view/452 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/32043 |
| _version_ | 1848753552261906432 |
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| author | Roberts, Lynne Rajah-Kanagasabai, C. |
| author_facet | Roberts, Lynne Rajah-Kanagasabai, C. |
| author_sort | Roberts, Lynne |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Academic staff members encourage university students to use online student discussion boards within learning management systems to ask and answer questions, share information and engage in discussion. We explore the impact of anonymity on student posting behaviour. An online survey was completed by 131 second year undergraduate psychology students (91% response rate). Overall, students reported being significantly more likely to post to discussion boards when anonymous posting was enabled than when identified posting was required (d = .49). Students who preferred to post anonymously were significantly less likely to post on discussion boards requiring identification than other students (η2 = .27). The experimental manipulation of anonymous/identified postings using a simulated discussion board thread revealed no significant differences in the perceived credibility of authors of anonymous and identified messages, or in the likelihood of responding to these messages. A combination of individual level factors; including online privacy concern, self-consciousness and self-efficacy; were predictive of the likelihood of making identified postings (R2 = .387), but only self-efficacy was a significant unique predictor of anonymous postings (sr2 = .05). Educators can consider enabling anonymous postings and providing training to increase student self-efficacy as ways of increasing student engagement through decreasing concerns about self-presentation online. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:26:20Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-32043 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:26:20Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publisher | ASCILITE |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-320432017-01-30T13:28:55Z "I'd be so much more comfortable posting anonymously": Identified versus anonymous participation in student discussion boards Roberts, Lynne Rajah-Kanagasabai, C. Academic staff members encourage university students to use online student discussion boards within learning management systems to ask and answer questions, share information and engage in discussion. We explore the impact of anonymity on student posting behaviour. An online survey was completed by 131 second year undergraduate psychology students (91% response rate). Overall, students reported being significantly more likely to post to discussion boards when anonymous posting was enabled than when identified posting was required (d = .49). Students who preferred to post anonymously were significantly less likely to post on discussion boards requiring identification than other students (η2 = .27). The experimental manipulation of anonymous/identified postings using a simulated discussion board thread revealed no significant differences in the perceived credibility of authors of anonymous and identified messages, or in the likelihood of responding to these messages. A combination of individual level factors; including online privacy concern, self-consciousness and self-efficacy; were predictive of the likelihood of making identified postings (R2 = .387), but only self-efficacy was a significant unique predictor of anonymous postings (sr2 = .05). Educators can consider enabling anonymous postings and providing training to increase student self-efficacy as ways of increasing student engagement through decreasing concerns about self-presentation online. 2013 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/32043 http://ascilite.org.au/ajet/submission/index.php/AJET/article/view/452 ASCILITE fulltext |
| spellingShingle | Roberts, Lynne Rajah-Kanagasabai, C. "I'd be so much more comfortable posting anonymously": Identified versus anonymous participation in student discussion boards |
| title | "I'd be so much more comfortable posting anonymously": Identified versus anonymous participation in student discussion boards |
| title_full | "I'd be so much more comfortable posting anonymously": Identified versus anonymous participation in student discussion boards |
| title_fullStr | "I'd be so much more comfortable posting anonymously": Identified versus anonymous participation in student discussion boards |
| title_full_unstemmed | "I'd be so much more comfortable posting anonymously": Identified versus anonymous participation in student discussion boards |
| title_short | "I'd be so much more comfortable posting anonymously": Identified versus anonymous participation in student discussion boards |
| title_sort | "i'd be so much more comfortable posting anonymously": identified versus anonymous participation in student discussion boards |
| url | http://ascilite.org.au/ajet/submission/index.php/AJET/article/view/452 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/32043 |