A trial of an online forum as a form of reflective assessment in a practical Journalism subject produced gender-related patterns in the postings, prompting a quantitative analysis of the times and days on which the students made their contributions.

A total of 454 postings was made over the three month period of the forum, and the consequent analysis of the postings uncovered some differences in usage of the forum depending on gender. Perhaps the most significant finding was that the female students were more willing to post their forum contributions from 6pm to 8am than their male counterparts, The female students also made more postings on weekends than their male counterparts, leading to the conclusion that the females were more prepared to use the online forum in a flexible manner.