Students' critical thinking level: examining Wimba Voice Board and text online discussions

In this study, we examined the use of Wimba Voice Board and a textbased online discussion in supporting students' critical thinking. Specifically, we addressed the following question, "Is there any significant difference in the level of students' critical thinking in asynchronous audio compared to text discussions?'' Two undergraduate classes participated in the study. Class A (n = 23) was randomly assigned to use the Wimba Voice available at Blackboard, while Class B (n = 18) used a text discussion forum, also at Blackboard. Both classes were asked to discuss on a similar open-ended topic with the same duration of time. We investigated if there was any significant difference in the levels of critical thinking between these two classes using Greenlaw and Deloach's (2003) taxonomy of critical thinking. Results of a Pearson chi(2) test statistics suggested a significant relationship between the levels of critical thinking and the type of asynchronous online discussion. Students produced more than expected higher critical thinking levels during asynchronous audio discussion. On the other hand, students exhibited more than expected lower critical thinking in asynchronous text discussion.