LESSON 5

COMPUTER-MEDIATED
COMMUNICATION
Learning Objectives
At the end of the Lesson, you should be able to:

differentiate computer-mediated
01 communication from other forms of
communication;

perform tasks related to computer-

02 mediated communication; and

appreciate the use of computer-mediated

03 communication as an accessible means to
communication through series of networks
What is computer-
mediated communication?
Computer-mediated Communication (CMC) is any
form of communication between two or more
individual people who interact and/or influence each
other via separate computers through the internet
or a network connection using software.
CMC does not include the methods by which two
computers communicate, but rather how people
communicate via computers
CMC promotes self-discipline and requires one to
take more responsibility for their own learning .
 CMC, includes everything from
structured projects to open projects to
open projects in which students are free
to work on "messy" but authentic
problem solving.

Traditional classroom interaction

places the teacher at the center
of all activities as transmitter of
knowledge and orchestrator of
student interaction.
 CMC provides tools that are useful in promoting
collaborative learning activities that can mediate
communication between learners.
further more, it allows students, in groups, to
collaborative with each other in an exchange of
opinions, experience, and interpretations of course
content.

Examples of CMC:
emails
mailbox
shared network group folders
discussion boards (or fora/forums)
 TYPES OF
COMMUNICATION

Asynchronous Communication
Asynchronous activities are independent of real-time and are comprised
of activities such as, viewing a web page, composing an electronic mail
watching a video clip, or downloading a file.

The benefits include opportunities to think about course content and to

address a diverse set of topics in more depth than can be done in class or
in asynchronous environment, thus allowing students to conceptualize a
topic from multiple multiple viewpoints and to contribute to each other's
understanding (Weasenforth et al., 2002
Synchronous
Communication
Synchronous activities occur concurrently
between two or more users including such
real-time applications as chat rooms or
instant messaging which allow users to
interact simultaneously through text, audio,
and video with other users located anywhere
in the world.
Synchronous CMC includes: Chat and Instant
messaging
problems ENCOUNTERED IN synchronous
cmc INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:

1. Multiple threads of discussion are created which

become too difficult to follow
2. for some students, particularly true of those students
who are communicating in another language other than
their first language.
3. Students on a slow connection always lag slightly behind
in the discussion
4. The discussion tends to lose focus because of many side
discussions
5. Some students cannot jump in because they are slow
typists
6. Responses get out of sequence
7. Failing to provide a platform for all students to
participate equally implicity cencors some of the
participants
How can we solve these problems?
1. The solution to this is to have a prepared set of questions, subjects to discuss,
etc. and have a fixed order for the students to respond in.
2. Allow a certain "open time" for students to chat with each other. this allows the
students who are less familiar with the technology to practice.
3. Also, it provides an opportunity for students who are more familiar with the
technology to introduce some of the abbreviation and emoticons used in chat
to their less experienced peers.
4. Explain the procedure for participation: i.e. that comments or response have to
be done in a sequence.
5. Impose order on the discussion when required. The lecturer's role in a chat also
LEARN MORE
includes that of moderator. Whereas in face-to-face one's authority can be
underlined by raising one's voice, in chat you can use upper case to make your
point more forcefully.
PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED IN
ASYNCHRONOUS CMC
1. The levels of participation are usually very
poor with CMC for the following reasons
2. Posts to the discussion boards need to be
frequent for people to maintain an interest
in the boards, and so if the level
participation drops below a certain degree,
no further postings take place.
3. checking the discussion board for posts
requires learning to incorporate an
additional activity to one's routine, which
often means people don't take part.
4. The asynchronous nature encourages people
to give participation a lower priority.
How can we solve
these problems?

1. Raise the profile of postings by using discussion board software that

also sends emails to the user's email account (and so is a combination
discussion board and mail base).
2. Make the discussion time-dependent, so that participants cannot
procrastinate.
3. Regularly structure the discussion threads using some of the following
actions:
4. Cut and paste discussion threads that diverge or are repeating
discussions elsewhere, so that each thread corresponds to one topic.
5. Identify specific points within the threads to prompt particular
discussions, eliciting answers to specific questions.
Which CMC should we
use?
The major factor in selecting a CMC medium is "should
the communication be synchronous or asynchronous?"
This decision should be based on the following criteria:

Can all of the participants meet at the same time?

Is the activity time -dependent (i.e. to fit in with a
teaching program)? if so, them a synchronous
medium is most appropriate.
Are the participants part-time students/spread
across time zones?
Is the subject matter one which requires in-depth
analysis and response? If so, then an asynchronous
medium is most appropriate.
 The use of CMC
Educators often categorized the use of instructional CMC in three ways:
For conferencing
Informatics
Computer-assisted instruction (CAI)
Informatics (repositories or maintainers of organized information)
include library online public access catalogs (OPACs), Interactive
access to remote databases, program/data achieve sites (e.g.,
achieves of files for pictures, sound, text, movies), campus-wide
information systems, wide-area information systems, and information
managers.