Tecnologias da educação: identificando o reflexo do chat e fórum de discussão no processo de aprendizagem no ensino superior

Quintana, A. C. (2015). Education Technologies: Identifying effects of chat and discussion forum in the learning process in Higher Education. Doctorate Thesis, School of Economics, Management and Accounting, University of São Paulo. The use of education technologies, not only in distance learning but also on-campus courses, is an attempt to contribute to the learning process traditionally developed through classroom actions. This study aimed to explore the use of technology from the perspective of Satisfaction and Learning Effectiveness, Student Perception, and Performance. A field experiment was conducted in an Introductory Accounting class of an undergraduate oncampus Accounting course at a Federal Public University. The research was conducted by dividing the class into two groups (treatment and control), each with approximately 30 students. The groups were reversed from one two-month period to another. The number of students varied depending on dropouts, and, different to what was expected, the grades of the two groups in the initial evaluation of the experiment were statistically different. Evidence suggests that this was probably due to a composition effect: the groups had different attributes with respect to inclusion in the labor market and/or the fact that the student had already completed a technical degree in Accounting. In order to achieve the purpose of the study, which was to identify the effects of the use of chat and a discussion forum in the learning process, an initial questionnaire was used to identify the groups’ profile. As well, an initial test was applied in each two-month period to reveal the groups’ previous level of knowledge on the topics of that period. In each two-month period, there were two chats and a discussion forum in the treatment group. At the end of each period a questionnaire on Satisfaction and Learning Effectiveness was applied to both groups, as well as a questionnaire on the students’ perception of the use of technology to the treatment group of each two-month period, and finally a test to measure the students’ achievement in the subject. Mean tests were applied to identify whether there were differences between the performance of groups, and correlation tests were applied between the students’ contributions in chat rooms and performance, to check the influence of participation in their performance. The factor analysis was also used in order to explain the interference of the results obtained in the questions related to the Technology Acceptance Model by Davis (1989) in the questionnaire results about perception of the use of technology. This study concluded that the effects of the use of chat and discussion forums are perceived in the students’ performance and in their perception of the usefulness of these tools in the learning process. Moreover, it was noted that age is a factor that causes an effect on the results, since younger students had better performance when using technology. The results suggest that the students' perception of the usefulness of technology on the learning process is a factor that interferes with the effects of their learning process, and that satisfaction in learning is not totally related to the effectiveness of the learning process, especially when it involves the use of education technologies.