From observation to entries into the conversation: Instructors' practices for displaying engagement in learners' small-group activities in a video-mediated crisis management course

Abstract

This study investigates practices by which instructors guide and support learners' small-group activities in video-mediated environments. Drawing on data from screen-recordings of sessions in crisis management training and using conversation analysis (CA), our aim is to unravel the sequential and temporal organization of moments when an instructor who has turned off their camera and microphone enters the conversation (i.e., produces an ‘entry’) and thereby displays engagement in the ongoing activity. The analysis shows how the entries are prompted by the learners' actions and established via the instructor's utilization of verbal (i.e., spoken and written), embodied and screen-based resources. Furthermore, we illustrate how instructor entries may have diverse functions in the overall pedagogical activity. They can be produced to 1) support and affiliate with the learners' discussion, 2) guide them in their work, or 3) correct some aspect of the pedagogical activity. The study shows how instructors can use different affordances of video-mediated environments to produce an entry into the learners' ongoing conversation and support task accomplishment.