Communication participants in online education are: (1) instructor which is mostly the sender, but often also the receiver of the messages; (2) students in online courses which are mostly receivers, but occasionally also the senders of the messages; (3) other students of online courses; (4) chance "observers" i.e. people who are not students in a course but have insight into messages exchanged between the instructor and the students. The fact that the content author, user interface designer and technical staff maintaining the LMS are also participants in the communication process and that the results of their work affect the communication between all the participants (1-4) of online education is sometimes neglected.
It is useful to bear in mind two often neglected characteristics of messages exchanged between the participants of online education. Every message, except for expert information that the instructor sends to the students, also reveals something about the instructor as a person . In other words, the instructor will, during the communication in online education, demonstrate their expertise or lack of it, degree of personal organization, literacy level, as well as some positive and negative personal character traits, personal attitudes and values etc. The instructor will also demonstrate their relationship towards a participants (or a group of participants), e.g. how much they appreciate or respect a certain participant, their interest or disinterest in participants, their readiness to spend time on communicaton with the participants etc.
Instructor should constantly evaluate his knowledge, skills and motivation for successful communication in online education process. Apart from that, he should be familiar with the characteristics of the so-called computer mediated communication (CMC).
Participants of online education can have different characteristics which affect how they will receive messages . First of all, this refers to the level of their previous education and knowledge related to the content of an online course. Lack of foreknowledge makes understanding of expert content, terminology and complex information significantly more difficult (e.g. someone without foreknowledge will have significant difficulties in understanding the communication protocol between computers connected into a computer network).
Other important factor is the motivation of the participants to attend the course . Low level of participant motivation requires messages directed at their motivation, as well as content, methods of work and interaction (e.g. group work) that will interest and engage them.
The third important characteristic of the participants is their orientation towards individual work and results compared towards their need for group work . Some participants will prefer individual work and avoid participation in a group and group discussion, where others will find socialization and group interaction while solving problems and discussing a certain topic more convenient. The level of mutual cooperation between the participants , as well as their readiness to be fair in interaction and relations to the group , without insulting, undermining, being ironic etc.
And finally, apart from the other important characteristics, the participants will also differ among themselves in their skills in computer-mediated communication and technical skills related to the use of LMS which will influence their ability to participate in the interaction and communication with other participants and the instructor.
The instructor in e-education should bear in mind possible characteristics of online participants and adapt his way of communication to different participants bearing in mind their needs, abilities and preferred ways and media of communication.
Tips & tricks: Characteristics of the individuals which participate in e-education influence their way of communicating and make it, among other things, necessary to carefully form and interpret messages, as well as to select appropriate communication channels (e-mail, instant messaging, forum etc.). Since the Internet is not a private medium i.e. the messages exchanged through the Internet are more or less public, as well as usually asynchronous, they remain recorded for a longer time and available to different people who can access them, appropriate style and content of communication should be selected. It should also be attempted that the personality of the instructor and the participants does not have a negative effect on the results of a communication process. Due to the lack of immediacy in interpersonal contact and insufficient real time feedback exchange, it is hard to perform appropriately the so-called repairs in communication. With message exchange in online education bear in mind that the technical medium they are mediated through will not reduce the effect of negative human characteristics, rather that it worsens the conditions for the repair of their negative consequences.
