Insights from preliminary analysis of online classroom chat logs during the COVID-19 pandemic

This work-in-progress practice paper reports on the experiences of using Microsoft Teams to teach a large postgraduate class on database systems during the 2020/’21 academic year, under conditions when students and lecturers were in an enforced societal lock-down because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The class was made up of 167 students of 12 different nationalities from diverse backgrounds. Determined efforts were made to create an interactive online classroom experience through the use of quizzes, practical demonstrations, worked examples, and live discussion. The chat feature of Microsoft Teams was extensively used by students to pose and answer questions, as well as to communicate with each other outside of class time. An analysis of the chat log files is presented, looking at how factors such as gender and national culture influenced behaviour, and also looking at how participation in the chat impacted upon the sense of belonging and overall performance.