Does gender influence discussion forum participation in online education?

In this study we have investigated aspects of women students’ participation in asynchronous discussion forums in an online education context where the women were heavily outnumbered by men. We found that the perceptions of the women concerning how often they participated and the grade they expected, as compared to the men, did not necessarily agree with a statistical analysis of what actually happened. We studied qualitative feedback by the women participants on their experiences in the forums in order to try to understand the reasons for this gap between perceptions and reality. As a result of this project, we foreshadow further studies that might help us form strategies to encourage confident participation by women in online education forums.