The online forum as flexible assessment: Gender differences in participation

A total of 454 postings were made over the three month period of the forum, and the consequent analysis of the postings uncovered some differences in usage of the forum depending on gender. Perhaps the most significant finding was that the female students were more willing to post their forum contributions after hours (i.e. from 6pm to 8am) than their male counterparts, with the females making 30.2% of their postings after hours, to the male students' 17.8%. The female students (8.3%) also made more postings on weekends than their male counterparts (1.5%).

The most popular time for forum postings for both genders was during the weekday afternoons (57.1% in total), following the logical pattern of mainly full time students who have come onto the campus for classes and have taken the opportunity to use computer labs to make their contributions.

Overall, the female students took more advantage of the flexibility of submission hours than their male counterparts. Interviews with some of the students involved have revealed that some students used the out of hours times because they better fitted in with the students' work and study commitments, while others would make postings after either completing other work on the computer, or after surfing the web for enjoyment. The interviews have also revealed that students of both genders preferred to make postings from home, citing comfort, convenience and the desire to avoid crowded computer labs. It must be pointed out that these interviews were carried out well after the students were given grades for the subject (indeed they had graduated), so I am confident that their answers were not affected by fear or favour.

The gender differences in the usage of the forum indicate that there may be a need for male students in particular to be encouraged to take advantage of the flexible nature of forum style assessments. It is useful to note that part of the males' problem was their greater tendency to leave their postings until the last two days of the forum (43.3%), with the females leaving 31.7 percent of their postings to that time. The findings also run counter to the accepted wisdom that females are more conservative in the use of computers than males, in that the females in this study have been more comfortable with the concept of working on this form of assessable material outside normal university hours.