Online discussion is one of the required learning skills for all citizens of the 21st century. Given that
males and females have different behaviours in both verbal and nonverbal communication, how this
difference is carried into online learning situations is a question worth considering for researchers of
online learning. Educators need to know the gender differences in discussion strategies so that they can
design better online discussion environments for their students. Therefore, in order to understand the
possible different approaches utilised by the genders when facing different group discussion contexts, this
study compared male and female students’ perceived discussion strategies both within and between
traditional F2F and OA learning contexts. Two research questions were investigated:
RQ1: Is there any significant gender difference in students’ perceived discussion strategies within the F2F
context and within the OA learning context? If yes, what are the differences? and Why are there
differences?
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