Glad to Have Taken the STEPS

2009 ◽  
pp. 455-469
Author(s):  
Geoff Danaher ◽  
Violeta Todorovic
Keyword(s):  
Adult Learners ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Discussion Forum ◽  
Teaching Process ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Online Discussion Forum ◽  
Role Of Teachers

This chapter focuses on aspects that contribute to successful online learning in the Skills for Tertiary Education Preparatory Studies (STEPS) bridging program at CQUniversity in Australia. The program, which aims to instill the aptitudes, values and attitudes for effective university study in interrupted adult learners, has been running for 22 years and has had an online component for off campus students since 2006. Among the challenges involved in developing the online program have been promoting the value of critical reflection, recognizing the importance of learning as process to complement a focus on learning as product, and configuring an effective constructive alignment between factors shaping the learning and teaching process. The role of teachers’ reflective practices and students’ use of an online discussion forum in meeting these challenges is explored.

scholarly journals ICT IN TEACHING – ONCE A CHOICE, NOW A NECESSITY

2021 ◽  
pp. 147
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Milanović ◽  
Biljana Novković Cveković
Keyword(s):  
Modern Technology ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
Ict Integration ◽  
Relevant Research ◽  
Teaching Process ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Role Of Teachers ◽  
Additional Support

The usage of ICT in the teaching process was a recommendation and an opportunity to innovate and actualize it until only a few months ago. The inevitable change caused by the unexpected circumstances triggered by Covid-19 brought all teachers into a situation where there was no room for consideration and no option to avoid the use of modern technology for learning and teaching purposes. Taking into account current situation that indicates the need for integration ICT into the teaching process, the aim of this paper was to analyze the relevant research, to point out the inevitability of providing additional support to teachers for the use of ICT in teaching. Accordingly, the research objectives was: pedagogical significance and contribution of ICT integration in the teaching process, the importance of the role of teachers in the process of ICT integration in teaching, as well as potential obstacles and difficulties that teachers may face in using ICT in teaching process. The obtained results can contribute to a more comprehensive view of the problems that teachers could face in the implementation of ICT in teaching, which would allow the determination of directions that would affect changes in their opinion related to acceptance and promotion of learning in ICT environment, as well as advantages to innovate teaching process by using ICT in teaching.

Transatlantic Collaborative Teaching and Learning via Information and Communications Technology

2005 ◽  
Vol 68 (10) ◽  
pp. 438-446 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Robertson ◽  
Robin McCannon ◽  
Jennifer Caldwell ◽  
Charles Juwah ◽  
Abdulaziz Elfessi
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Virtual Community ◽  
Discussion Forum ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Information And Communications Technology ◽  
Communications Technology ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
University Of Wisconsin ◽  
Online Discussion Forum

The overall aim of this project was to investigate the potential of problem-based learning (PBL), supported by information and communications technology (ICT), to develop key, transferable and requisite skills and knowledge, which are critical for practice as an occupational therapist. This paper provides an evaluation of the potential of the ICT employed in the study to enhance learning and teaching. The project entailed a transatlantic collaboration between the faculty members and students of The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen (RGU), and the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse (UWL). Thirty students participated in the project. The ICT employed in the project included videoconferencing, email and computer-mediated conferencing (online discussion forum). The faculty members of the participating institutions generated a PBL case. The students received the case material by staged release via the virtual community and worked on developing appropriate assessment, treatment and resettlement strategies in geographical groupings, supported by email and the online discussion forum. They met and discussed their findings via videoconferences. The findings demonstrated that the ICT used was robust and provided a viable means of delivering the project content. The participants viewed the technology positively and their confidence and skills in using the technology progressed during the project.

scholarly journals Influence Without Metrics: Analyzing the Impact of Far-Right Users in an Online Discussion Forum

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630512110088
Author(s):  
Mathilda Åkerlund
Keyword(s):  
Online Discussion ◽  
Discussion Forum ◽  
Online Forums ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Online Discussion Forum ◽  
Echo Chamber ◽  
Influential Users ◽  
The Impact

The study presented in this article explores the processes through which influence takes shape in eclectic online forums with few vanity metrics. Using a dataset of 7.5 million posts in the large Swedish online discussion forum Flashback, it explores who becomes influential, their strategies for appealing to the community, and others’ support of them. While it has been known that Flashback hosts far-right users and content, the current study shows that these sentiments are not fringe or obscure, but instead seemingly widely supported and influential in the forum. It illustrates that the influential users—those who are supported and acknowledged by others as important—exclusively and continuously expressed far-right ideas and displayed an embeddedness within the far-right, as well as in the forum’s culture. The study finds that despite few visible markers, many users learned to recognize influential users and their far-right content as worthy of support. In the absence of built-in functions, some users engaged in manual “liking” and “sharing” of influential users’ content via their replies, acknowledging it as a way to legitimize them. At the same time, the analysis showcased how a lack of vanity metrics countered potential echo chamber effects in the forum as disliked users—advocating progressive gender and immigration ideas—were unintentionally amplified by those who attempted to silence them. The article also discusses the role of Flashback as a platform in the proliferation of hate.

scholarly journals DON'T JUST SAY THANK YOU: EXPLORATION OF TYPES OF POSTS INSPIRING AND HINDERING DEEP CONVERSATIONS ONLINE

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Devayani Tirthali ◽  
Yumiko Murai
Keyword(s):  
Learning Community ◽  
Sequential Analysis ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Discussion Forum ◽  
Online Course ◽  
Online Discussion Forum ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Fixed Structure ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Given

In an open online discussion forum, where there is no fixed structure or a facilitator like a course forum without any assigned themes, every participant is a facilitator shaping the direction and depth of a conversation. How can we as designers then make sure it leads to an engaging learning community that learners keep coming back to beyond the given course period? This paper reports on sequential analysis of 172 posts in 32 threads and close reading of two threads from an open online discussion forum in a free open online course, specifically looking at the impact of participant actions as facilitative moves, to gain better understanding of the types of actions that lead to deeper and sustained engagement with the ideas of interest. Sequential analysis is an approach that estimates which types of sequences of posts or interactions are most likely to occur in a threaded discussion. The results showed that sharing personal experiences attracted most responses, implying that it is important to encourage participants to share questions or cases connected to their personal experiences. In addition, somewhat paradoxically, we found that posts acknowledging responses tend to conclude and close down the conversation while posts that ask diverging questions tend to attract more discussion.

scholarly journals The Speech Act of Request in Computer-Mediated Communication

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Maria Miwita Rosari
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Discussion Forum ◽  
Law School ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Online Discussion Forum ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Politeness Strategies

Through conversation ones establish relationship with others and keep channels open for further relationships. Politeness strategies and issues have been the focus of a number of studies. The way ones request for something to others depends on some factors such as the context they are in and the interlocutors they talk to. This article aims at developing the latest discussion on politeness phenomena by paying attention to the specifics of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) settings specifically an online discussion forum. This article attempts to identify how speech act of request is performed in Top Law School (TLS) online discussion forum. The data were analyzed to observe the forms of speech act of request and the types of speech act of request performed in the online discussion forum. The findings of this paper revealed that the forms of speech act of request are expressed by declarative, interrogative, and imperative sentence. Moreover, the types of speech act of request employed by the users are directive, indirective, and literal speech acts. The writer believes that the study will be beneficial and a good reference for future researchers in conducting research on pragmatics under the same topic. Hopefully, it will enrich readers’ knowledge and understanding of the speech act of request and the politeness in CMC.

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