Although much is known about the experiential nature of online conferencing, we know less about actual participation and engagement. This paper investigates delegate interactions in the “parallel chat” function of a video platform during an online medical education conference. We collected 813 unique messages, posted while speakers presented on a digital stage. We used descriptive statistics to summarize message/chat content in terms of participant categories and topic. 23 % of delegates posted in the chat. However, to go beyond these dimensions, we used conversation analytic methods to identify the actions accomplished in messages and their interconnectedness. We developed a coding scheme to report this analysis across the complete dataset. We found that messages mostly comprised positive assessments (“Wonderful talk!”) and appreciations (“Thank you!”). ‘Second’ messages were more common than initiations or ‘first’ messages, indicating extensive engagement between participants. Few messages received no response. Delegates also formulated what speakers said to develop ‘learning moments’ in the chat. Overall, we argue that a richer and more precise understanding of participation and engagement in video conferencing can be achieved by analysing actual participation and its content, rather than relying only on post-hoc reports and surveys. Data are in British English.

中文翻译：

---

关于在线视频会议的参与和参与，“聊天”告诉我们什么？

尽管人们对在线会议的体验性质了解甚多，但我们对实际参与和参与却知之甚少。本文研究了在线医学教育会议期间视频平台“并行聊天”功能中的代表互动。我们收集了 813 条独特的消息，这些消息是在演讲者在数字舞台上发言时发布的。我们使用描述性统计来根据参与者类别和主题来总结消息/聊天内容。 23% 的代表在聊天中发帖。然而，为了超越这些维度，我们使用对话分析方法来识别消息中完成的操作及其相互关联性。我们开发了一种编码方案来报告整个数据集的分析。我们发现信息主要包含积极评价（“精彩的谈话！”）和赞赏（“谢谢！”）。 “第二条”消息比启动或“第一条”消息更常见，表明参与者之间的广泛参与。很少有消息没有收到回复。代表们还阐述了演讲者所说的在聊天中创造“学习时刻”的内容。总的来说，我们认为，通过分析实际参与及其内容，而不是仅仅依赖事后报告和调查，可以对视频会议的参与和参与有更丰富、更准确的理解。数据为英式英语。