Abstract
<P class=abstract>Peer-to-peer interaction using computer-mediated communication (CMC) would appear to be a promising source of timely and cost-effective student support, but little empirical evidence regarding actual participant support behaviour has been presented (Lee, 2000). This paper reports a study of the occurrence of 13 online strategies defined as &ldquo;supportive,&rdquo; according to the categorizations found in an instrument called the <I>Transcript Analysis Tool</I> (TAT). The corpus used in the study consisted of three transcripts produced by students (graduate degree and professional development diploma candidates) engaged in course-related CMC conferencing. Analysis of the transcripts generated by the three groups showed the following:</P>
 
 <UL style="font-size:100%">
 <LI>The support strategies most frequently used by the three groups were <I>referential statements</I> (statements which made reference to others&rsquo; previous comments; TAT type 2B), <I>signatures, greetings</I>, and <I>horizontal questions</I> (open-ended questions which invited negotiation of a plausible answer; TAT type 1B). </li>
 
 <LI>There was some variability among the groups in the frequency of use of <I>referential statements, horizontal questions</I>, <I>emoticons</I>, and <I>invitations</I> to others. </li>
 
 <LI>High- and low-support groups differed from each other in their use of referential statements, signatures, greetings, horizontal questions, rhetorical questions, and humour.</LI>
 </UL>
 
 <P class=abstract>As an examination of the social element of three communities of inquiry, the study described how members of these groups attempted to connect with one another interpersonally, using asynchronous conferencing, on topics related to the conceptual content of the courses. The paper concludes that while in this case the above behaviours were the means most often used to support and encourage interaction, further examination of online support behaviours and strategies is needed, especially in relation to valued outcomes such as persistence, greater motivation, less stress, and, ultimately, enhanced learning. </P>
Highlights
Interpersonal growth of participants and promotion of intellectual development have for some time been regarded as important challenges in distance education, as problems of dissemination of materials and other logistical issues have largely been resolved, at least in developed countries (Commonwealth of Learning, 1993)
Little empirical data exist on the forms and amounts of actual peer-to-peer student support behaviour online (Lee, 2000), despite recognition of this form of social support as an important type of “relational cultural capital” (Carnwell and Harrington, 2001), an “enabling” resource for learning (Rezabek, 2002), and a significant enhancement to the intellectual quality of learning environments (Garrison, 2002)
In previous work with a smaller transcript corpus (the Centre for Distance Education (CDE) option course in this study), comparisons of the frequencies and proportions of the above sentence types found in the transcript, produced a multi-layered description of conference interaction
Summary
Interpersonal growth of participants and promotion of intellectual development have for some time been regarded as important challenges in distance education, as problems of dissemination of materials and other logistical issues have largely been resolved, at least in developed countries (Commonwealth of Learning, 1993). Analyses of online conferences have yielded information about how participants view each other, and how they collaboratively create and sustain purposeful interaction, which might be related to other findings on decision support systems, the workings of task groups, strategic management teams, cognitive presence/ metacognition, and how individuals connect and collaborate interpersonally in online learning environments (Stringer and Uchenick, 1986; DeSanctis and Gallupe, 1987; Walther, 1996; Garrison, 2002) From these sources it appears possible that the same tools and techniques, which enable participants to solve procedural or logistic problems, may be adapted to enhance interpersonal online relationships (Tait, 2000). The interactive process itself helps build and articulate consensus toward an adequate (as opposed to a correct) answer
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