An analysis of masculine and feminine writing in postings within a series of health and social care on line undergraduate courses

Jump, Lynne, Jump, Richard, Gill, Anne and Stacey, Christine G. (2008) An analysis of masculine and feminine writing in postings within a series of health and social care on line undergraduate courses. In: Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications (EDMEDIA) 2008. Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE), Chesapeake, VA, USA, pp. 1040-1049. ISBN 1-880094-65-7

Abstract

This study aims to extend understanding of pedagogic dialogue by analysing the effect that the gender of the student has on interaction within a selection of ordinary health and social care on line courses. The study is heavily influenced by the work of Sue Herring (1992, 1993) who has researched widely into the relationship between gender, language and computer mediated communication. By using Gender Genie as the research instrument the study aimed to answer the following questions Can Gender Genie predict the author of the gender of the e learning asynchronous discussion posting in more than 51% of the messages analysed?. The context of the study is a school of health and social care situated within a University. The majority of courses within the school are preparing students for a range of professional roles. However we can definitely state that the gender genie could not accurately predict the gender of the author of the discussion posting. While we cannot be certain that it is not as a result of the inaccuracy of Gender Genie there would be appear to be a predominance of masculine writing across all five courses. This study aims to extend understanding of pedagogic dialogue by analysing the effect that the gender of the student has on interaction within a selection of ordinary health and social care on line courses. The study is heavily influenced by the work of Sue Herring (1992, 1993) who has researched widely into the relationship between gender, language and computer mediated communication. By using Gender Genie as the research instrument the study aimed to answer the following questions Can Gender Genie predict the author of the gender of the e learning asynchronous discussion posting in more than 51% of the messages analysed?. The context of the study is a school of health and social care situated within a University. The majority of courses within the school are preparing students for a range of professional roles. However we can definitely state that the gender genie could not accurately predict the gender of the author of the discussion posting. While we cannot be certain that it is not as a result of the inaccuracy of Gender Genie there would be appear to be a predominance of masculine writing across all five courses.

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