Prevalent Forms of Online Communication in Education and Beyond: A Closer Look

The year is 2025, and online communication options are staggering in scope. With the abundance of apps, platforms, and systems, we find a few prevalent categories of online communication, each with its own strengths, weaknesses, and ideal uses. From threaded discussions that organize group ideas, to emails that preserve important details, to live video conversations that bring faces and voices together regardless of physical distance, online communication has transformed how we connect, collaborate, and learn. Understanding how these tools work, and when to appropriately use them, will enhance our success in educational, personal, and professional circles. Here’s a quick look at three popular forms of online communication!

Threaded discussions

A threaded discussion is a form of online communication where ideas or topics are presented, and responses from participants are organized or nested below the original post. This format is widely used and familiar to most people due to its presence in many social media platforms. However, it has many applications within academic and professional settings as well. Some common purposes for threaded discussions include seeking answers to questions, engaging in a topical debate, collaboration on projects, and providing reviews or feedback. Below are some considerations on this format.

Benefits: threaded discussions are highly effective for presenting focused topics, and keeping comments and contributions from several individuals organized. Attempting this feat by email or face-to-face conversation would prove far less efficient. When unfolding in real-time, such as the chat feature in Zoom or other online meeting platforms, threaded conversations allow participants to clarify, expand, and share related information without disrupting the flow of the live meeting. When comments are placed under the appropriate thread, participants can easily focus on the topics of greatest interest or relevance, and quickly skip over threads that are not applicable.

Drawbacks: Threaded conversations can become elaborate, with several branches of comments happening simultaneously. Important information can become buried in threads, and may not be seen by all users. Some participants may post lengthy or unrelated responses that interrupt the flow of information or cause the thread to veer off-topic. Problems can also arise when participants do not adhere to generally accepted rules of netiquitte; trolling and flame wars are two examples prevalent in social media. 

Summary: Threaded conversations are an incredible tool for collaboration, sharing information, and tapping into the collective knowledge of a group. When used appropriately, they can inform, expand knowledge, introduce new perspectives, encourage collaboration, and provide helpful feedback. They can enhance the value of face-to-face meetings online. However, this mode of communication should not be used exclusively in situations where critical information must be delivered to a group.

Email communication

This form of communication almost needs no introduction, as it is the original form of computer-to-computer communication to emerge at the dawn of the internet. Messages can be composed and sent instantly to any number of people, from one individual to a large group of users. Modern email systems allow users to send text, hyperlinks, and many types of files including documents, photos, videos, sound files, and more. Recipients can respond to messages, or forward them to additional recipients.

Benefits: When used for communication between two individuals, emails can be very effective for sharing personal information that shouldn’t be shared with a larger group (i.e. an entire class, work group, etc.) As a tool to connect larger groups, email is best used to share important information, such as documents, deadlines, schedules, priorities, and updates. Users then have information stored in writing, as emails can be saved for future reference. 

Drawbacks: Written communication, such as email, lacks important context such as tone and body language. Intent and meaning can be misconstrued, requiring additional time for clarification. As one of the most common forms of communication, information overload is another concern. Messages can become lost in overwhelmed inboxes as people struggle to filter out promotions, updates, group replies, and announcements. While once considered revolutionary for its immediacy, email is now considered inefficient for urgent communication and quick conversations. Messages often sit unopened for long periods of time as individuals attend to text and app notifications from various platforms.

Summary: As the oldest form of internet-based communication, email is likely here to stay. Interestingly, most of its functions are easily duplicated by other online platforms; for example, files and important documents can be shared in group-centered spaces like Google Classroom. Messaging platforms allow for private vs. group messages. Despite the abundance of alternate communication systems, email still plays a crucial role in work and education settings, keeping groups coordinated and informed, and allowing individuals to communicate efficiently.

Online Synchronous Discussion

Web-based video-calling platforms such as Skype, FaceTime, Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams have revolutionized the way we connect in education, professionally, and personally. Our reliance and familiarity with these platforms increased exponentially during the recent pandemic. The ability to have online synchronous discussions with large groups of participants has opened doors to efficiency, convenience, and flexible working/learning arrangements.

Benefits: In the absence of the ability to meet in person, many hold a deep sense of gratitude for technology that allows us to stay connected while maintaining the visual and aural cues inherent to our communication style. When used efficiently, online discussions can result in quick coordination, collaboration, expansion of ideas, clarification, group decision-making, and the ability to make new connections. You also get to see other people’s cats.

Drawbacks: These systems can never fully replace the experience of in-person communication, and success is largely dependent upon WiFi signals, internet speeds, and bandwidth. The probability of technical glitches is considerably higher than communicating by email or message threads alone; participants can also become disengaged. If attention wanders during a video call, there is no guarantee of a written transcript to refer back to. Some participants may be less likely to contribute, as the format can be intimidating as compared to a message thread.  

Summary: Online video platforms allowed me to continue teaching music lessons during the pandemic, with higher effectiveness than I had originally thought possible. I still have students that opted to stay online for convenience, and who I would otherwise not be able to fit into my teaching schedule. In education, having a video discussion with a classmate is far more engaging than sifting through threads, and can often lead to delightful side-tracked discussions that still add value to the experience.