Understanding the experience of non contributory online participants (readers) in NCSL communities

Abstract

This study explored the range of participation taking place in the National College for School Leadership (NCSL) online communities and focussed on participants who defined themselves as not actively contributing to the online discussion. We called these non-conmtributory participants “readers” Whilst we recognised that an individual community member’s degree of participation might simply reflect their choice, we wanted to ensure that where fuller active participation was sought, there were no system or personal barriers to prevent it. A literature review with a dual focus was therefore made, the first element being factors in the online environment that might affect participation, and the second being personal motivation where we drew especially on dynamic motivation theory. A questionnaire was constructed based on this dual review. This had questions that generated both numerical and text based responses. After a pilot study, alterations in the questionnaire were made and the revised version was sent to 2,600 recently active community members. Over 750 replies were received yielding qualitative and quantitative data. Of these, 587 identified themselves as “readers” and only their responses were analysed for this paper. Analysis produced a very rich picture of motivational factors affecting participation in online communities. Benefits of various types of online interaction were put forward and suggestions about barriers to online interaction were made. This paper suggests that online participation may be seen as a continuum and that non contributory online participants (readers) are a far from homogeneous group ranging from those who experience technical and personal barriers to those who value and gain much from readership. Suggestions are made to assist