La mensajería instantánea como herramienta para la colaboración no formal de los estudiantes universitarios

Resumen

Digital tools have become essential elements to contribute to student learning, especially at university level. Among their many uses, students use them for their academic work as well as to communicate with their peers or to work collaboratively in groups. This type of collaboration goes beyond the academic requirements (formal collaboration) and is the object of study in this research. The research problem that was set out was whether postgraduate students use instant messaging tools in the academic context for non-formal collaboration. To address the research subject, the objective of describing the use of instant messaging as a tool for informal collaboration in a regulated postgraduate teaching context was established. To this end, the students' use of instant messaging as a tool linked to their academic work was analysed from the perspective of its communicative purpose as well as the type of messages they use. We seek to describe and understand the reality that we are investigating, and we also approach it from the analysis of the subjectivities of the participants, both teachers and students, analysing the opinion of both with respect to the evaluation of the usefulness of instant messaging as a collaborative tool. For this purpose, non-experimental evaluative research was conducted, with a mixed methodology for a single-case design. This mixed methodology allows us to approach the problem from a quantitative perspective, describing the use of instant messaging objectively and, at the same time, gives us a closer look at the subjective reality obtained from the qualitative approach. Data from the study were collected anonymously using a variety of instruments, including questionnaires, spreadsheets, field notes, and interviews. In accordance with Creswell (2009), we employed a type of data referred to as "connected," whereby the outcomes of one instrument informed the design of subsequent instruments. Initially, we analysed the data pertaining to the communication intentions exchanged via instant messaging and the results of the questionnaire administered to students regarding their perceptions of WhatsApp usage. Subsequently, the results were employed to inform the design of the student and teacher interviews. Finally, a questionnaire was developed and implemented for all Master's programme teachers. The synthesis of the results indicates that graduate students predominantly utilise instant messaging for the resolution of queries or peer-to-peer advice, which is primarily related to academic activities. The students perceive WhatsApp as a highly useful tool for collaborative work, including the organisation of groups, the formation of consensus, the distribution of tasks, and the comparison of results. In conclusion, students believe that interacting with other students through instant messaging facilitates collaboration and concur with educators that some of its key advantages are immediacy and ease of use. The research has demonstrated the limitations of this type of tool in situations involving numerous groups, where multiple topics of conversation are opened, or a large volume of messages is exchanged. This can impede the ability to track conversations or result in the loss or misrepresentation of information. Given the limitations of the research to a single postgraduate programme, it is necessary to address this topic of interest in future research that expands the case studies. Furthermore, it is essential to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the impact of emerging communication tools and assess whether they serve as a complement or even a replacement for WhatsApp.