Virtually unknown: web conferences as a tool for teacher development Caroline Moore [Tony Fisher & Eric Baber]

Today’s presentation IATEFL Web Conference 2014 Our research question and research tools What we found out What we plan to do next Plan ActObserve Reflect Action Research

IATEFL Web Conference 2014 Presenter via own webcam PowerPoint Text chat Q&A box List of participants & hosts

The 107 who responded (70% response rate here) had attended an average of 5.9 sessions each.

Framing your research question: can you compare a virtual with a face-to-face conference?

Our research questions What constitutes webinar discourse? What counts as successful and unsuccessful participation in such discourse? How the format might be refined to maximize successful participation in future online events? How do webinars/web conferences support teacher development? And do they : Serve as an additional benefit for existing members? Help IATEFL recruit new members? Help IATEFL reach non member teachers?

Research tools Quantitative Webinar room statistics, how many participants, login duration Conference registration process Post conference questionnaire Chat discourse analysis Qualitative Observation of web conference, and review of videos afterwards Chat discourse analysis Comments from participants

Who were the participants?registrations

Login statistics 840 individuals logged in at least once (49% of people registered) Talks attended by between 130 to 320 concurrent participants 200 attended both days (12% of those registered)

Q1: Which of the following sessions did you attend or view afterwards (n=120): Average rating of each talk was 3.45 where 3 = “good” and 4 = “excellent”

Q6: How would you rate your experience of attending the IATEFL Web Conference?

How successful do you feel the presentations in this conference were in supporting teacher training and development?

We have tried to build a degree of interactivity into the Web Conference, and offer participants opportunities to ask questions, share ideas, and interact with the presenters and fellow participants. Could you tell us whether this was important to you, and how successful we were in this objective.

Discourse analysis of text chat discussion The analysis of discourse is, necessarily, the analysis of language in use … While some linguists may concentrate on determining the formal properties of a language, the discourse analyst is committed to an investigation of what that language is used for. (Brown & Yule 1983: 1)

Discourse analysis of text chat discussion To what extent and in what ways are the webinar sessions ‘interactive’? How do participants use the chat facility? How successful is the chat in facilitating productive engagement? What is successful participation?

Discourse analysis of text chat discussion 6 talks analysed Across the talks 59% of participants contributed to chat (range of 45% to 85%)

“Firstly, there is no reason to assume that the extent of participants’ contributions is a reliable measure of the degree to which these individuals perceived their participation to be active and meaningful. And secondly, a considerable number of participants did in fact make multiple contributions to the text chat.” Tony Fisher

5 Discourse types 1. Interpersonal Discourse Greetings, enquiries about the time of day in different countries, etc. 2. Evaluative Discourse All chat that was positively or negatively evaluative of the video presentation or the presenter. These were exclusively positive. 3. Technical Discourse Queries regarding sound or video quality, or the recordings. 4. Procedural Discourse Related to the administration and staging of the webinar: the timing of presentations, the availability of recordings, attendance certificates. 5. Content Contributions concerned directly with the presentation, participants address one another, or respond directly to the presenter.

“..strategic oversimplification of the actual discourse environment.” Tony Fisher

“ … the off-topic contributions do not appear to interfere with the flow of content related discourse in this stretch of text chat… several exchanges seem to be taking place simultaneously.” Tony Fisher

What happens when the presenter sets a task? Virtual suspension of non-topic related chat, participants become super attentive to the task and task setter, we can see they are typing but not immediately posting their responses.

Conclusions The Chat box serves an important function in itself, but presenters can use tasks to assert a greater degree of focus or control if they wish Our research suggests that the web conference was successful for CPD for large numbers of globally dispersed teachers We were able to build a successful community of teachers There is a need for more research, particularly into pedagogical approaches suitable for large audiences of up to 500 people. Contact: