Differences in sense of community and participation between lurkers and posters in informal online education-related communities

Lurking behaviour is very common in online communities, especially in large-scale informal online communities. Lurkers, who make up the majority of community members, are often overlooked by researchers. The aim of this investigation was to explore both lurkers and posters’ participation and sense of community in informal online education-related communities. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was applied. A total of 82 participants completed the survey and 9 of them were interviewed. Results of the investigation showed that although there was no significant difference between lurkers and posters in their sense of community, they reported different perceptions of community during the interviews. Lurkers tended to be more negative about the technical features supporting communities, while posters tended to be more negative about people who hindered community building through disrespectful or unkind contributions. In addition, while participation between those who post and those who lurk was different in the communities studied, interviews suggest that both lurkers and posters had different reasons for lurking and may change their participation behaviours depending on how they perceive the community within different online groups. Practical implication for online community mangers and educators in terms of reconsidering design and management and implications for future studies are discussed.