Instant Messaging in Classes

1
Instant Messaging in Classes

• Wooseob Jeong
• School of Information Studies
• University of Wisconsin - Milwauke

2
Not kids stuff any more

• No longer just a toy for teens, instant
  messaging has evolved into a powerful tool for
  work. (PC World, February 2006, p.66)
• What about for (higher) education?

3
Kids are growing

• IM was considered as a teen thing at some point
  (Thomas, 2001) and not considered as a serious
  tool for education. However, those teens have
  grown as college students and more and more
  people are using IM in various settings.

4
Faculty is slow

• Cohn (2002) urged universities and faculty
  members to adopt IM and train themselves in using
  IM as both prospective and current college
  students are using IM pervasively, although
  Walther was somewhat pessimistic on adults,
  including faculty, readiness for IM (Thomas,
  2001).

5
Jeong at ALISE 2002

• Jeong (2002) presented findings from his
  implementation of IM in both local and distance
  courses. Students appreciated not having to wait
  for answers to questions and appreciated the more
  informal context of IM conversations. Surveyed
  students felt that the potential for IM to be
  useful in the distance learning environment was
  very high.

6
IM interaction among students

• Nicholson (2002) reported a survey result with 30
  students participated, saying students who used
  IM services found it easier to communicate, felt
  a stronger sense of community, and had more
  venues for informal and social communication
  about not only class material, but also
  information about the school and their common
  degree program.

7
Problem Statement

• However, while they provide general overviews of
  IM usage in education, particularly with
  quantitative data collected by survey methods,
  few of the previous research on IM in educational
  settings do not provide in-depth story between
  students and instructors while they are using IM
  for educational purposes. Knowing the
  interactions in IM usage is very important to set
  up optimal conditions for IM in educational
  settings.

8
Purpose of Study

• The purpose of this study is to listen to those
  students who participated in IM communication in
  class setting and based on their stories, to
  identify potentials and obstacles and to suggest
  optimal conditions for IM usage for classes.

9
Data Collection

• 19 classed from summer 2001 to spring 2004
• 247 students participated in the survey.
• 196 participated in IM
• 51 did not participated in IM, but did the
  survey.
• The topics of the classes were both technical and
  non-technical Visual Basic, Multimedia, HTML,
  JavaScript, and XML vs. Human Computer
  Interaction (HCI) and Senior Capstone.
• Both undergraduate and graduate level courses
• Both on campus and online classes.
• Since the summer of 2003, IM became required.

10
Quantitative Data Analysis (1)

• Descriptive Statistics
• Overall rating for the instructors IM
  communication 7.17
• Potentials of IM in a traditional, or face to
  face, class setting 6.48
• Potential of IM in an online setting 7.49

11
Quantitative Data Analysis (2)

• Potential dependent variables for inferential
  statistics for the ratings
• student level (graduate v. undergraduate)
• technical aspect (non-technical course such as
  HCI v. technical course XML)
• mode of course (online v. face-to-face)
• characteristics of IM participation (optional v.
  required)
• However, a multivariate analysis by SPSS showed
  that there is no significant difference for any
  of these factors.

12
Qualitative Data Analysis

• Three aspects of IM usage in classes were derived
  from a data-to-concept method which is usually
  used in grounded theory research
• 1) positive aspects in using IM
• 2) negative aspects in using IM
• 3) Resistance to participating in IM
• This method is considered as a best method for
  this kind of story-telling qualitative study
  and has been used frequently, particularly in
  information seeking behavior research.

13
Positive Aspects in Using IM (1)

• Availability and instant responses
• What I liked best on IM in this class is the
  instant responses back from the professor.
  (Spring 2003, 891, online, required)
• I appreciated the IM option because it offered
  real time answers to questions and the professor
  was available when I needed to ask a question.
  (Spring 2003, 891, online, required)
• Instant accessibility particularly important in
  distance education. Both the student and the
  instructor can freely contact each other, without
  limitations due to distance and/or geographical
  barriers, without lengthy waiting for e-mails or
  phone calls. (Fall 2002, 310 online, not required)

14
Positive Aspects in Using IM (2)

• Comfort zone / clarification
• Easy to get hold of the professor. Questions were
  easy to ask, gave me more time to think and ask.
  Kept it as personal as an appointment. (Spring
  2004, 310, on campus, required)
• It has been great all semester knowing the
  Professor was just a click away. It really gave
  me a sense of feeling connected to the professor,
  and even to the department and the college.
  (Spring 2003, 891, online, required)
• I have really felt lost in some of the Distance
  Education courses I have taken even with the
  benefit of chat and email. Chat is cumbersome
  with many people involved and email does take
  time for the receiver to respond. (Spring 2003,
  891, online, required)

15
Positive Aspects in Using IM (3)

• Replacing office hours
• It might be helpful though if the instructor
  could put aside a special hour for each week,
  just so students could log in and ask questions.
  It could be sort of like online office hours.
  Since Im online all the time, it was very easy
  to catch up with the instructor. But some
  students might have much busier schedules, and
  they might not be so lucky to catch the
  instructor online as much. (Fall 2002, 310,
  online, not required)
• It allowed me to get in touch with my professor
  almost instantly when I needed to. It eliminated
  the need to go to his office during his office
  hours. In other words, it resulted in the
  professor being much more accessible. (Fall 2004,
  310, online, required)

16
Negative Aspects in Using IM (1)

• Miscommunication / lack of visual interaction
• I find it hard to read peoples emotions with
  electronic communications. Without knowing the
  person, it is hard to know if they are annoyed or
  they are just trying to say what has to be said.
  Without the face to face interaction you have no
  frame of reference or body language to read more
  into the words. (Fall 2003, 310, online,
  required)
• It works well if both parties are not distracted.
  I have communicated with someone who was
  distracted once and it was annoying. However that
  happens on the phone too. The disadvantages of IM
  are that you lose nonverbal cues, you can be
  misinterpreted or misinterpret someone else, the
  other personal may not be online, the other
  person may be slow to respond or not respond at
  all. (Fall 2002, 310 online, not required)
• Numerous comments on this issue.

17
Negative Aspects in Using IM (2)

• Privacy and intrusiveness issues
• I wish it was possible to have different status
  with different people. For example, I use IM at
  work and at home. When Im at home on a vacation
  day, I do not necessarily want to communicate
  with work all day, but I might want to IM a
  classmate, friend or family member. I know that
  on MSN messenger, you can appear offline when, in
  fact, you are really online. But your status
  appears the same to everyone on your list. (Fall
  2003, 310, online, required)
• It felt odd to think that someone else could see
  that I was on my computer at any given time. I
  found myself tinkering with the settings to
  provide a little more feeling of privacy. (Summer
  2003, 891, online, not required)
• Im not very fond of IM, or chatting. Its just
  that Im too busy to spend time chatting and I
  dont like to be in the middle of doing something
  on the computer and my IM pops up with a message,
  that I dont plan on responding to at the current
  time. (Fall 2002, 310, online, not required)
• I feel I cannot interrupt you to IM. I enjoy
  asynchronous communication because it lets each
  party participate at their leisure. When I use
  IM, I usually expect an instant response, and
  that somehow seems unfair since you have so many
  students and so many classes. (Spring 2003, 891,
  online, required)

18
Negative Aspects in Using IM (3)

• Including fellow classmates
• Maybe each class member should have access to the
  class members IM address. (Spring 2003, 891,
  online, required)
• My only real complaint is that more students
  didnt use the IM option for communication
  particularly when it came to doing group
  projects. (Fall 2002, 310, online, not required)
• I didnt communicate with anyone but the
  instructor on IM. It would have been very useful
  on final projects to have the ability to speak
  with group members. Most didnt have IM IDs.
  (Fall 2002, 310, online, not required)

19
Negative Aspects in Using IM (4)

• Concerns about instructors availability
• The only thing I didnt like about using IM was
  that when a person was idle or away from their
  desk, I never knew if that person got my
  message. (Fall 2003, 240, on campus, required)
• I am never sure if the person is available. The
  problem I have is the login the first time. Yahoo
  is not very helpful when looking to login help.
  The help was not very clear. (Fall 2003, 310, on
  campus, required)
• Sometimes it was hard to tell if Dr. Jeong was
  actually at his computer or not - it takes some
  time for IM programs to display you as inactive.
  I also had to identify myself by name and which
  class I was in so that he knew who I was as
  opposed to when I ask him questions in person in
  class - he knows exactly who I am and which class
  I am in. (Fall 2002, 310, on campus, not
  required)
• Not knowing when you would be online and being
  able to chat. (Spring 2004, 310, on campus,
  required)

20
Negative Aspects in Using IM (5)

• Aversions to installing more programs
• I hate installing another program on my PC. (Fall
  2003, 240, on campus, required)
• Have to use a separate service to contact the
  instructor using IM (either Yahoo or Hotmail). I
  use AOL as my ISP and AOL has an IM which should
  be world-wide. (Fall 2003, 310, on campus,
  required)
• I think IM on different services can be confusing
  and I didnt like having to install a different
  message system (Yahoo). (Fall 2003, 310, on
  campus, required)
• I use AOL for my instant messaging. Since you did
  not have an AOL account, I simply never took the
  time to set up another. I have too many e-mails
  and usernames as it is I dont need one more (I
  know its silly.) (Spring 2003, 891, online,
  required)
• Not universal! I have an AOL IM account but the
  instructor did not. Needed to subscribe to your
  account. (Spring 2004, 310, on campus, required)

21
Negative Aspects in Using IM (6)

• Environmental restrictions
• I really wanted to participate but I couldnt
  really because I dont have administrative
  privilege to install Yahoo IM on school
  computers. I did register with Yahoo, but I could
  not install. I will try to see I could try on a
  different computer. 9
• (Fall 2003, 310, on campus, required)
• I could not install Yahoo IM on Schools
  computers. (Summer 2003, 310, on campus, not
  required)
• The only problem I had with IM was, in school
  none of the labs except 1 (in Bolton Hall) allows
  you to use IM, so it was hard to use it if I
  spent more time in school. (Spring 2004, 310, on
  campus, required)
• I do not do IM during the school year because I
  dont have a computer and most campus labs have
  it disabled. (Spring 2004, 310, on campus,
  required)

22
Negative Aspects in Using IM (7)

• Usability and interface issues
• I was not used to using Yahoo instant messenger.
  It took me time to figure out the functions
  involved. (Spring 2004, 310, on campus, required)
  
• I hate remembering the screen-names. (Fall 2003,
  310, on campus, required)
• No spell checking, sometimes my fingers crossed
  up. (Fall 2003, 310, online, required)
• The noise it makes when a message pops up. (Fall
  2003, 310, on campus, required)
• Adding people to lists was not easy (Summer 2003,
  310, on campus, not required)
• If delayed my start and restart and yahoo wanted
  to load a mess of stuff I didnt want. (Fall
  2003, 240, on campus, required)
• I had never used IM before, so it took me awhile
  to figure out how to use it effectively. The time
  lag made me feel like I was behind the rest of
  the class. (Spring 2003, 891, online, required)
• I also was confused about assigning names. (Fall
  2003, 310, on campus, required)

23
Negative Aspects in Using IM (8)

• The next comments are not necessarily negative,
  but they are ironic in the fact that some
  students felt uncomfortable in using IM with an
  instructor, despite all its advantages.
• It is weird IMing my professor. (Fall 2003, 310,
  on campus, required)
• It was also very odd to have a professor on my
  buddy list because I mainly use IM programs for
  personal and not academic communication.
  Sometimes, it was odd putting silly away messages
  regarding my friends when I knew that Dr. Jeong
  could read them. (Fall 2002, 310, on campus, not
  required)
• At first I thought this is weird. But then after
  I talked to you a few times I felt like if I went
  to your office and you could help me right away.
  (Fall 2004, 310, online, required)

24
Resistance/Refusal to Use IM (1)

• Do-it-myself students
• I did not participate via IM for several reasons.
  First of all, I never really felt the need.
  Except for one or two minor issues, I found
  everything I needed to know via the Web or the
  textbooks. Perhaps it is simply my personality,
  but I prefer to try and solve problems on my own.
  (Summer 2003, 891, online, not required)
• I dont really expect immediate responses and I
  am usually able to organize my work so that I can
  use WebCT Discussion List for most questions.
  (Summer 2003, 891, online, not required)
• I did not participate in the IM part of this
  class because I felt that I did not have any
  questions or comments during the course. (Fall
  2003, 240, on campus, required)
• My only potential problem is that IM use is
  required. If I were a student that did nor
  require assistance, and who could get through
  everything smoothly, I may have had some problem
  with being required to participate via IM.
  (Spring 2003, 891, online, required)
• I didnt participate because I didnt have any
  questions to ask. (Spring 2004, 310, on campus,
  required)

25
Resistance/Refusal to Use IM (2)

• Simply not enough time
• I did not use IM as often as I could have.
  Working full time, reading the materials, doing
  the projects, and participating in the Discussion
  Groups, many of my questions were answered.
  (Summer 2003, 891, online, not required)
• I regret I did not use IM in this class. Much of
  my internet access was done during down time at
  my full-time or part-time job, and neither one
  allows me to add an instant messaging service (or
  any other outside program) to my networked
  computer. (Fall 2003, 891, online, required)
• I have some issues with my finances at UWM and
  this keeps my schedule full. I have classes every
  day of the week (mornings) and I work every
  night. I also work weekends (Sundays) and this
  leaves very little time for Instant Messaging on
  the computer. (Spring 2004, 310, on campus,
  required)

26
Resistance/Refusal to Use IM (3)

• Email and fact-to-face interviews are good enough
• I really didnt see much that I could do with IM
  that I couldnt do with email, with the exception
  of getting very specific technical help from the
  professor that required back-and-forth in real
  time to see if the problem was being resolved.
  (Summer 2003, 891, online, not required)
• In addition, the few times I had questions for
  you via email, you responded very quickly, and I
  did not have any urgent questions justifying an
  IM rather than an email. (Spring 2003, 891,
  online, required)
• While I have used it previously to great success
  in personal communications, the few time I have
  used it in an academic setting, I have been
  unsatisfied and quickly switched to email
  communication. (Summer 2003, 891, online, not
  required)
• The reason I used email most instead of IM was
  because my questions were too big. (Fall 2003,
  240, on campus, required)

27
Resistance/Refusal to Use IM (4)

• Lack of home computer
• Its a useful tool but you should not grade
  people on how much they use it, because some
  people may not have a computer, or even some
  people do not have questions so IMing has little
  or no purpose. (Spring 2004, 310, on campus,
  required)
• Not every student has a computer or knows how to
  use IM. (Fall 2004, 310, on campus, required)

28
Discussion (1)

• The rating on IM interaction may depend on
  individual instructors availability and
  willingness to be available. Students are aware
  of this aspect as well.
• Even in a traditional classroom setting IM would
  be useful. However, most professors are probably
  not so willing to be available as often as are
  you. It would depend greatly on the topic and the
  instructor. (Spring 2003, 891, online, required)

29
Discussion (2)

• However, apparently IM has many positive aspects
  if used in educational settings, in both on site
  and online course. Despite the fact that there
  are some resistances against using IM in classes,
  many cheer this new method of communication in
  educational settings.
• I think all teachers should be required to have
  IM available along with their class hours. It
  doesn't make sense to come to campus to ask a
  question about an assignment length, or verify a
  piece of information. I think the IM service is a
  valuable educational tool. (Fall 2004, 310, on
  campus, required)
• I'm hopeful that the use of IM will expand into
  the future, as the use of email has.
  Communication is an essential element to
  instruction. (Fall 2004, 310, on campus,
  required)

30
Conclusion (1)

• This research proved by stories from students
  directly that IM has a great benefit in class
  settings.
• However, since there is known resistance in using
  IM, it is important to it clear to students
  beforehand that IM is for better communication
  with instructors.
• As more instructors adopt IM in their classes,
  the instructors reactions would be worthwhile to
  investigate in future studies.

31
Conclusion (2)

• I'm glad that a professor has started using this
  type of communication. In my day to day life IM
  is one of my main modes of communicating with
  people. It's very easy and cuts through the wait
  time and/or traveling to call, email, or visit
  during office hours. Especially for simple
  questions like how many words, or when this is
  due. I hope that more professors catch on to this
  way of communicating. (Fall 2004, 310, on campus,
  required)