Teaching the Online Marketing Research Course for MBA Students

Learning in an online environment shares many aspects with the learning required in marketing research projects conducted by research agencies with client firms. However, learning-management-system platforms now provide powerful ways to enrich learning in the online environment through threaded discussions, access to video clips and lively interaction between students and instructors. In such ways, an asynchronous online marketing research course can allow the type of rich experience and reflection that are the hallmarks of valuable experiential-learning. The purpose of this article is to discuss the benefits and challenges of teaching a key course in the education of business students—the marketing research course—in an online environment. This article integrates theoretical frameworks of online education and discusses timely issues for those teaching an online marketing-research course to MBA students, such as the importance of imparting the scientific method, the role of the teacher as a facilitator, content for the course, and thoughts about future marketing research courses. Because most online MBA students are currently working in business, they have an opportunity for applying their learning at work in a very valuable way. Such opportunity can bring an energy and excitement for learning not matched in other contexts for the MBA.

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.

FACE-TO-FACE VERSUS THREADED DISCUSSIONS: THE ROLE OF TIME AND HIGHER-ORDER THINKING

This study compares the experiences of students in face-to-face (in class) discussions with threaded discussions and also evaluates the threaded discussions for evidence of higher-order thinking. Students were enrolled in graduate-level classes that used both modes (face-to-face and online) for course-related discussions; their end-of-course evaluations of both experiences were grouped for analysis and themes constructed based on their comments. Themes included the “expansion of time,” “experience of time,” “quality of the discussion,” “needs of the student,” and “faculty expertise.” While there are advantages to holding discussions in either setting, students most frequently noted that using threaded discussions increased the amount of time they spent on class objectives and that they appreciated the extra time for reflection on course issues. The face-to-face format also had value as a result of its immediacy and energy, and some students found one mode a better “fit” with their preferred learning mode. The analysisof higher-order thinking was based on a content analysis of the threaded discussions only. Each posting was coded as one of the four cognitive-processing categories described by Garrison and colleagues: 18% were triggering questions, 51% were exploration, 22% were integration, and 7% resolution. A fifth category – social – was appropriate for 3% of the responses and only 12% of the postings included a writing error. This framework provides some support for the assertion that higher-order thinking can and does occur in online discussions; strategies for increasing the number of responses in the integration and resolution categories are discussed.

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.

Conversation Modeling on Reddit Using a Graph-Structured LSTM

This paper presents a novel approach for modeling threaded discussions on social media using a graph-structured bidirectional LSTM (long-short term memory) which represents both hierarchical and temporal conversation structure. In experiments with a task of predicting popularity of comments in Reddit discussions, the proposed model outperforms a node-independent architecture for different sets of input features. Analyses show a benefit to the model over the full course of the discussion, improving detection in both early and late stages. Further, the use of language cues with the bidirectional tree state updates helps with identifying controversial comments.

Establishing a Mentoring Relationship Between Pre-Service and Mentor Teachers Through Windows Into Teaching and Learning

Windows into Teaching and Learning (WiTL) was a project designed by researchers at one southeastern U.S. University that allowed the facilitation of online clinical experiences for graduate interns during their content area methods course. WiTL was originally developed to address challenges in providing meaningful clinical experiences for interns during online summer coursework. In providing these experiences, a mentoring relationship emerged between the participating practicing and pre-service teachers. This chapter explores those relationships and how they were fostered by the unique features of WiTL, which include online threaded discussions, synchronous and asynchronous viewings of classroom instruction, and text chat communication. These relationships are further supported through WiTL's debriefing process, which allows for immediate interaction between pre-service and mentor teachers. The type of dialogue and collaboration encouraged by WiTL results in strong mentoring relationships. The potential for programs like WiTL to be implemented in PK-12 settings are discussed.

The Impact of Role Assignment on Cognitive Presence in Asynchronous Online Discussion

This study examined the impact of role assignment on cognitive presence when students participated in asynchronous online threaded discussions. A mixed methods design was used to investigate changes in the levels of cognitive presence while the students participated in an online introductory nutrition course. This study found evidence that scripted role assignment can be an effective instructional strategy when the approach is implemented into asynchronous online discussions. Implications for instructors and designers of asynchronous online learning environments are discussed.

Exploring the Effect of Scripted Roles on Cognitive Presence in Asynchronous Online Discussions

The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of scripted roles on students’ level of cognitive presence in asynchronous online threaded discussions. A mixed methods design was used to investigate: (1) what level of cognitive presence is achieved by students’ assigned roles in asynchronous online discussions; (2) differences between students’ cognitive presence when the asynchronous online discussions occur during a 5-week intensive summer courses versus 15-week regular semesters (fall and spring); and (3) the impact of the types of questions on students’ cognitive presence in role-based asynchronous online discussions across three semesters in an online introductory nutrition course. The participants of this study were 129 undergraduate students at a major public University in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The results of this research corresponds to the findings of previous research that scripted roles can be an effective strategy to improve both learning processes and outcomes. In addition, this study didn’t find any differences in students’ level of cognitive presence when they enrolled in 5-week summer courses or 15-week regular semesters in fall and spring. Finally, this study found evidence that the types of questions related to the level of cognitive presence, i.e., higher level questions can lead to higher level of cognitive presence and vice versa.