Gender in student online discussions

In a large online course, students were divided into 18 asynchronous online discussion groups with different gender mixes. The number and cognitive content of student messages were analysed. Females wrote more messages than males with no difference in the cognitive quality of message content. In mixed groups, females wrote fewer messages than in all-female groups but males wrote more messages than in all-male groups. Students' characteristics and views were described by 19 variables. There were significant gender differences in 11. In multiple regression, the variables most positively related to the number of messages written per student were: a preference for discussions being online; and a high course grade. These partly explained why females wrote more messages.