Threaded Discussion

This article presents the results of two studies that focus on the role that threaded discussion plays in student learning. Over a period of three and one-half years, researchers conducted a series of surveys of graduate and undergraduate students at a private, nonprofit university in Southwestern Pennsylvania to determine how students viewed the value of threaded discussions in enhancing their ability to learn course material. Students were asked which types of threaded discussions they preferred; whether they found the threaded discussion to be a better tool for learning than a written assignment; and, which learning environment they felt was more conducive to learning, classroom or online. Results from the combined studies revealed some statistically significant differences based on enrollment status and gender. Upon comparing study results, researchers found statistically significant differences with regard to a preference for classroom versus online instruction and the usefulness of threaded discussions to learning.

UNDERSTANDING AND FOSTERING INTERACTION IN THREADED DISCUSSION

This study (N=2,826 postings from 92 participants) examines the phenomenon of interactivity in asynchronous computer-mediated communication (ACMC), also known as threaded discussion, in the context of master’s level Teaching English as a Second Language (MATESL) and Teaching English as a Foreign Language (MATEFL) courses. The study, which is grounded in a group of interrelated pragmatic, learning community, and pedagogical theories, attempts to determine when and under what conditions interactivity, here defined as a response to a previous posting, occurs. We focus on conditions that are present in interactive threaded discussions, those with low rates of serial monologuism and high rates of participant uptake. Taking interactivity as the dependent variable, we test a number of properties of individual ACMC postings to determine their relationships to interactivity. These variables include biographical properties of the writers (gender and first language (L1), role in the course) and a group of individual ACM posting properties, such the content of the posting (course related, phatic, both), whether or not the posting is interactive, the length of the posting, its intended audience, and whether or not the posting contains indicators of social presence (use of social speech, humor, naming, and more), face-threatening speech acts, and direct questions.Data used in the study were collected from ACMC, part of a web-based graduate introduction to second language acquisition and research methods courses. Participants in the courses were from various L1 backgrounds, including American English, Polish, Korean, and Arabic. Among our findings is that while social presence markers do not predict interactivity, there does seem to be some relationship between indicators of social presence and the quality of interaction.

Online Threaded Discussion: Benefits, Issues, and Strategies

The rapid growth of technology allows tertiary-level education to develop alternative ways of instruction to effectively support student learning. Although a face-to-face class is still powerful, online learning has been advocated as an innovative instructional way to confront constraints such as distance, time, space, and diverse student characteristics. This article introduces a brief overview of online threaded discussion (OTD) in a blended course in physical education teacher education (PETE), and provides insights into how to effectively design, manage, and teach online courses. In particular, contextual information that relates to a specific university, PETE program, course, and students are discussed in this article. Second, the blended model and OTD implemented by the authors are introduced. Finally, the article discusses the blended model's contributions, issues, and strategies, and provides implications for physical educators to improve their online courses in higher education settings.

Evaluating Student Perceptions of Using Blogs in an Online Course

This article is based on an exploratory study on the use of blogs to support learning in an online MBA school. In this paper, the authors examine students’ perceptions toward blogs and their effectiveness. The study finds that although students are open to the idea of using blogs to enhance presentation and reflection of their learning, concerns exist on their suitability for threaded discussions in the presence of other platforms like threaded discussion boards. Therefore, what is less clear is the learning value and potential of blogs, especially that subset of learning that is orchestrated (and credentialed) by formal learning organisations.

Reusability of Online Role Play as Learning Objects or Learning Designs

This study tracks the uptake of online role play in Australia from 1990 to 2006 and the affordances to its uptake. It examines reusability, as one affordance to uptake, from the perspective of two often polarized constructs: learning object and learning design. The study treats “reuse” in two ways: reuse of an existing online role play and reuse of an online role play as the model for another role play. The first type of reuse implies the online role play is a learning object and the second type implies the online role play derives from a learning design. Online role play consists of a scenario and a set of roles that students adopt in order to collaboratively solve a problem, create something, or explore an issue via e-mail or a combination of e-mail and Web-based threaded discussion forum. Thirty-six role plays of this type were identified in Australian universities of which 80% were reuse of a learning design. Only three examples of role play as a learning object were found, suggesting that learning design is a useful concept for understanding how to support reusability in universities. Other affordances to uptake of role play were also tracked. This indicated that the contribution of educational developers far outweighed that of academic colleagues, conferences, journals, and engines. The results have implications for the work practices of educational developers and for managers of learning object repositories.

CMC and Intercultural Learning

One key theme in the area of computer-assisted language learning has been the potential of computermediated communication (CMC) for the language learning process. Here, CMC refers to communication conducted through the medium of computers connected to one another in local or global networks. It requires specific software tools and can be either synchronous (e.g., chat, audio- or videoconferencing) or asynchronous (e.g., e-mail, threaded discussion lists). This chapter explores how CMC might contribute to language learning and teaching. Starting off with an overview of the development of research in this field, a model for the analysis of successful telecollaboration procedures and processes is used for the discussion of a German-Australian exchange.