Naturally occurring help-seeking exchanges on a homework help forum

• Most students did not adopt a self-regulated attitude on a homework help forum.
• Teachers are better able to help students who show signs of self-regulation.
• Students return to the forum only when they need more help, not to be polite.

We analyzed naturally occurring help-seeking exchanges (n = 123) between 11th and 12th graders and mathematics teachers on a French homework help forum. The results showed that (1) most students did not adopt a self-regulated learning (SRL) attitude when approaching the teacher for the first time (i.e., they did not communicate their preliminary work on the task for which they were seeking help, and they did not formulate an explicit request for help), (2) students' SRL attitude facilitated the teacher's work, while a non-SRL attitude made the teacher's work more difficult, (3) more than one student out of four shifted from a non-SRL attitude to an SRL attitude during the help-seeking exchange, and (4) students who returned to the forum after receiving the teacher's answer typically did so in order to ask for more help. Furthermore, the classical three-part structure (i.e., opening, message, closing) of traditional social interaction was only employed by the teachers; openings and especially closings were frequently absent in the students' messages. In conclusion, the characteristics of the students' initial message seemed to determine whether the pedagogical process between the student and the teacher got off to a good start. The students' messages were different from standard written and spoken communication, tending towards abbreviated form, content, and politeness.