Using the Community of Inquiry Model to Investigate Students' Knowledge Construction in Asynchronous Online Discussions

2014 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chien-Jen Liu ◽  
Shu Ching Yang
Author(s):  
Larisa Olesova ◽  
Margaret Slavin

The role assignment is an increasingly popular approach for facilitating and evaluating asynchronous online discussions (Strijbos & Weinberger, 2010), with aspirations to enhance students' cognitive presence. However, simply assigning roles may not improve knowledge construction, engagement, or interaction necessary to achieve this goal. Cognitive presence is a critical facet of the community of inquiry, rooted in the critical thinking literature, and is operationalized by the practical inquiry model for assessment purposes (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2001).This presentation will share the methods and results of a study investigating changes in the level of cognitive presence while students played roles (starter, wrapper, and skeptic) in asynchronous online case-based discussions. The study was conducted during fall 2013, spring 2014 and summer 2014 in NUTR 295-DL at George Mason University. The research questions for this study were, "What is the impact of role playing on the level of cognitive presence? How is cognitive presence expressed across different roles played by students when they participate in asynchronous online discussion?"


Author(s):  
Hajar Ghadirian

<p>This study explored patterns of e-moderating behaviour students performed when they were assigned as peer moderators of asynchronous online discussions in a reciprocal manner. Eighty-four students from an undergraduate blended course were observed during a 7-week-long online discussions. Using quantitative content analysis peer moderators’ interventions were analysed based on Smet, Keer, Wever, and Valcke’s (2010) scheme. The descriptive results show information exchange and knowledge construction supports were of continuous importance. Finally, a cluster analysis identified three distinct patterns of e-moderating behaviour: low-level moderators, mid-level moderators, and high-level moderators. The clusters differed in types of e-moderating support as well as their patterns of participation. High-level moderators dominated knowledge construction support and showed high level of online participation. Mid-level moderators dominated information exchange support and exhibited a moderate level of participation. Socialisation support and low level of participation were characteristics of low-level moderators. We further examined how these approaches were related to peer moderators’ perceptions of online discussions and academic performance. The results indicate that high-level moderators scored highest on all aspects of perceptions of online discussions and outperformed peer moderators in the other clusters with regard to academic performance.</p>


Author(s):  
Hajar Ghadirian ◽  
Ahmad Fauzi Mohd Ayub ◽  
Kamariah Binti Abu Bakar ◽  
Maryam Hassanzadeh

<p>This study presents a case study of asynchronous online discussions’ (AOD) growth patterns in an undergraduate blended course to address the gap in our current understanding of how threads are developed in peer-moderated AODs. Building on a taxonomy of thread pattern proposed by Chan, Hew and Cheung (2009), growth patterns of thirty-six forums were explored on three patterns: Short Thread Pattern (SHTP), Extended Thread Pattern (ETP), and Split Thread Pattern (STP). The impact of peer moderating supports on thread growth was also investigated. Types of peer moderators’ supports were explored utilizing a coding scheme from Smet, Keer, Wever, and Valcke’s (2010) study. STP pattern was found to be more common than the other patterns with 74 (37.94%) out of 195 threaded discussions growing on it. The results also showed that, compared to SHTP, in both STP and ETP the occurrences of ‘Information exchange’ and ‘Knowledge construction’ supports appeared to be more, while the presences of supports stimulating ‘Development’, ‘Access and motivation’ and ‘Socialization’ were less. Furthermore, the use of ‘Access and motivation’ and ‘Socialization’ supports appeared to enhance early thread termination when used individually. Thread continuity was reinforced by the use of ‘Knowledge construction’ support with other moderating supports.<em></em></p>


Author(s):  
Vasa Buraphadeja ◽  
Swapna Kumar

Research on several aspects of asynchronous online discussions in online and hybrid courses has been successfully conducted using content analysis in the past. With the increase in Web 2.0 and social media use in education, research on knowledge construction within newer virtual environments like blogs or wikis is just emerging. This study applies a well-known model of content analysis for knowledge construction to an educational wiki environment. Twelve graduate students’ contributions to a wiki in a 14-week on-campus course on Web 2.0 technologies in education are analyzed. Results indicate that the wiki platform fosters collaborative knowledge construction and that is necessary to develop new frameworks to analyze content in new learning environments. Wiki environments provide opportunities for researchers to capture the process of collaboration, knowledge construction, and meta-cognition.


Author(s):  
Juan Pedro Cerro Martínez ◽  
Montse Guitert Catasús ◽  
Teresa Romeu Fontanillas

Abstract Following asynchronous online discussion activities as a complex communication process is a demanding task for teachers. In this paper, the authors have explored the potential in supporting such activity through learning analytics. From the beginning, the authors acknowledged the limitations of technology to support the complexities of a pedagogical activity. Therefore, the methodology used was participatory design-based research (DBR) divided into two main stages. The first design phase dealt with the engagement of teachers and pedagogical experts in defining the data and metrics to be used to support the pedagogical concepts. The second consisted of an implementation phase including pilots with students and with crucial engagement of teachers in commenting their understanding over students’ learning processes and the feedback the teachers could offer to them. Overall, the students shown improvements in their performance as monitored through the learning analytics group in contrast with control groups. The discussion over the design and its results could be potentially extrapolated to other educational contexts.


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