INTERACTION IN SYNCHRONOUS CHAT TUTORIALS TO FACILITATE LEARNING IN INTRODUCTORY STATISTICS

This paper investigates interaction in synchronous chat tutorials trialed in an introductory statistics course offered in distance education mode. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework of Garrison, Anderson and Archer, while primarily developed to inform online asynchronous discussion groups in non-mathematical contexts, is used to describe the interactions in these online tutorials. Transcript analysis was performed on three chat logs of weekly online sessions and the three presences of the CoI framework- social, cognitive and teaching presence- were identified. The changing dynamic amongst these presences across the semester was explored. Preliminary results indicate that the balance of the presences changes over time and, while it is suggested that this may be associated with the difficulty of the content, further investigation is needed. BACKGROUND The distance in distance education connotes the isolation of students from their teachers, from each other and from the institution itself. Moore’s seminal “theory of transactional distance” (Moore, 1997) described distance education as “the universe of teacher-learner relationships that exist when learners and instructors are separated by space and/or by time ” (p. 22). Traditionally, distance education – as afforded by the available technologies of print and the postal system – predicated a delayed transmission mode of learning. Universities are now looking to technology to change this restrictive teaching approach and to provide distance students with intensive support systems to promote and sustain their learning. It is thought that technologies can “rescue the scattered students from their loneliness by providing interaction ” (Guri-Rosenblit, 2009, p. 106) and that “the interaction inherent in discourse [in synchronous chat] can be motivating to learners ” (Dennen, 2008, p. 207). It is, however, important to choose the right tool for the task whether this be information exchange, social support or task support (Hrastinski