Students utilization of Discord Messaging Platform in an Introduction to MATLAB Course

Emily Hammond; Jayden Mitchell; Jessica Swenson

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: Computers in Education 9 - Technology I
Page Count: 14
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--41215
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/41215
Download Count: 351

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Paper Authors

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Emily Hammond University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

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Emily Hammond is currently an Assistant Teaching Professor at the University at Buffalo. Her teaching focuses on introduction to programming and computational methods for engineers and supporting the first year program. She holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Iowa.

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Jayden Mitchell University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

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Jayden Mitchell is an undergraduate research assistant in the Department of Engineering Education at the University at Buffalo. He is majoring in Aerospace Engineering. He is interested in research surrounding the process of student learning and comprehension within undergraduate engineering course work.

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Jessica Swenson University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

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Jessica Swenson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering Education at the University at Buffalo. She was awarded her doctorate and masters from Tufts University in mechanical engineering and STEM education respectively, and completed postdoctoral work at the University of Michigan Her current research involves examining different types of homework problems in undergraduate engineering science courses, flexible classroom spaces, active learning, responsive teaching, and elementary school engineering teachers.

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Abstract

Engineering courses are increasingly utilizing technology tools to enhance and support learning of engineering content. The COVID 19 pandemic and the move to emergency online instruction only increased the use of such tools as other avenues to connect with students and enhance online instruction. One such tool is Discord, a text, voice, and video messaging platform focused on building community. Sense-making, as defined in science and engineering education literature, is the ways in which students form deep understanding of concepts and reason about course material. In prior studies, this has been found through verbal conversation between students, or students and teaching assistants or instructors. In this study, we aim to investigate if text-based conversation on Discord produces similar results and how students use this technology as a tool in the classroom.

A Discord server was set up by the instructor as a resource in an engineering computations course which teaches introduction to MATLAB and solving systems of equations using linear algebra. Assignments included weekly homework, a final project, a midterm, and a final, each with their own corresponding channel or channels in the platform, along with a general channel. Following the semester, the Discord chat logs were downloaded and analyzed with mixed-methods. Throughout the semester, 256 out of 444 students joined the channel with two-thirds of them contributing to the 5366 unique messages across all channels. As expected, a greater number of messages were posted prior to each homework deadline and before each exam.

Using techniques from discourse analysis and grounded theory, codes were developed and refined to categorize individual messages posted on the Discord channels dedicated to the programming project. Codes were developed focusing on the type of speech, i.e. problem, explanation, apparent resolution, etc, and by the topic of conversation, i.e. interpretation, development, debugging, etc. Students were found to post about problems 39% of the time and provide explanations 34% of the time. Topically, students spent 35% of the time discussing program development and another 33% of the time debugging. Minimal instances of sense-making were reported.

Implications of this work include a better understanding of how students use new technology tools, specifically messaging platforms, to aid in their course work and make sense of the material.

Citation
Format

Hammond, E., & Mitchell, J., & Swenson, J. (2022, August), Students utilization of Discord Messaging Platform in an Introduction to MATLAB Course Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41215

TY - CPAPER
AB - Engineering courses are increasingly utilizing technology tools to enhance and support learning of engineering content. The COVID 19 pandemic and the move to emergency online instruction only increased the use of such tools as other avenues to connect with students and enhance online instruction. One such tool is Discord, a text, voice, and video messaging platform focused on building community. Sense-making, as defined in science and engineering education literature, is the ways in which students form deep understanding of concepts and reason about course material. In prior studies, this has been found through verbal conversation between students, or students and teaching assistants or instructors. In this study, we aim to investigate if text-based conversation on Discord produces similar results and how students use this technology as a tool in the classroom.

A Discord server was set up by the instructor as a resource in an engineering computations course which teaches introduction to MATLAB and solving systems of equations using linear algebra. Assignments included weekly homework, a final project, a midterm, and a final, each with their own corresponding channel or channels in the platform, along with a general channel. Following the semester, the Discord chat logs were downloaded and analyzed with mixed-methods. Throughout the semester, 256 out of 444 students joined the channel with two-thirds of them contributing to the 5366 unique messages across all channels. As expected, a greater number of messages were posted prior to each homework deadline and before each exam.

Using techniques from discourse analysis and grounded theory, codes were developed and refined to categorize individual messages posted on the Discord channels dedicated to the programming project. Codes were developed focusing on the type of speech, i.e. problem, explanation, apparent resolution, etc, and by the topic of conversation, i.e. interpretation, development, debugging, etc. Students were found to post about problems 39% of the time and provide explanations 34% of the time. Topically, students spent 35% of the time discussing program development and another 33% of the time debugging. Minimal instances of sense-making were reported.

Implications of this work include a better understanding of how students use new technology tools, specifically messaging platforms, to aid in their course work and make sense of the material.
AU - Emily Hammond
AU - Jayden Mitchell
AU - Jessica Swenson
CY - Minneapolis, MN
DA - 2022/08/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Students utilization of Discord Messaging Platform in an Introduction to MATLAB Course
UR - https://peer.asee.org/41215
DO - 10.18260/1-2--41215
ER -