Comparing students and professors impressions about the use of forums and chats during a distance learning discipline

Abstract

One of the main issues related to the online distance learning courses is the method employed in order to connect students and professors. Two main forms of communication are normally chosen (or combined): synchronous and asynchronous. This paper aims to analyze the impressions of students and professors about the usage of both methods of communication on the specific context of Final Year Project discipline. A survey containing questions based on the three main constructs of the Technology Acceptance Model was applied for both groups of stakeholders (students and their supervisors). The survey aimed to identify impressions and preferences of those groups for one form of communication over the other. It was possible to observe that asynchronous communication (forum discussions) was highly rated by both groups in comparison to synchronous communication(chat discussions). At the same time, it is important to highlight that synchronous communication also obtained good ratings, indicating that the combination of both methods is well suited and complementary for this particular scenario.