The impact of asynchronous interactive participation of students on their learning outcomes in an intermediate Chinese language course at an online high school

This descriptive correlational study examined the impact of the levels of asynchronous interactive participation (AlP) on the learning outcomes in an online Chinese course. Three research questions are included in this paper: 1. What is the relationship between the levels of asynchronous interactive participation and the learning outcomes in listening, reading, and writing; 2. Are there any gender differences in the levels of participation and in the learning outcomes; and 3. What prior online learning experiences can be the good predictors for the levels of asynchronous interactive participation? The results revealed that although the moderate correlations between the levels of AlP and the learning outcomes was not statistically significant, the text-based discussion board postings had significant impact on the reading and writing scores of the final test. The test results also indicated that synchronous interaction has great impact on the learning of non-heritage students. No significant gender differences in the levels of AlP and the learning outcomes were found in this study. No prior online learning experience could be used in predicting the levels of AlP. These results suggest the benefits of reading and writing in this particular online Chinese language course.