The influence of personality on social participation in learning environments

The impacts of the instructional environment (classroom vs. Web-based instructional environment-WBIE) and personality differences on students' social participation were examined among 214 university students. Students reported their attendance, willingness to participate and actual participation in each instructional environment. Students' personality traits were measured by the Big Five Inventory. It was found that despite of frequent attendance to both educational environments, the classroom seems to enhance students' active participation whereas WBIE appears to inhibit it. Participants in class were more extroverted, open to new experiences and emotionally stable, relative to non-participants. Such differences were not found between WBIE participants and non-participants. Students who actively participated only in WBIE were more introverted and more neurotic than students who participated in both environments, students who did not participate in either instructional environment, or students who participated exclusively in class. These results point to the psychological impact of the two instructional environments, and suggest viewing social participation as a result of educational context while individual differences play secondary role.