Effective, e-learning environments include a diverse range of pedagogical practices and should focus on active-learning and student-centered pedagogy. Therefore, it should not be the delivery medium, but rather the instructional methods that facilitate proper learning. Courses that incorporate effective instructional methods will support better…

The research described in this article explored the efficacy of a novel teaching strategy to recreate classroom debates online. Using a structured approach and collaborative group work, the researchers developed an approach that students found very useful in six different dimensions: enhancement of active learning, critical thinking, interaction…

With the rapid growth of online learning at community colleges and the low course completion and performance associated with it, there has been increasing need to identify effective ways to address the challenges in online teaching and learning at this setting. Based on open-ended survey responses from 105 instructors and 365 students from…

This paper presents the use of a debate in an online asynchronous social policy course. Debate is frequently used as an instructional strategy in higher education, but little is known about the use of this tool in an online learning environment. Participants (N = 36) completed an online debate assignment, and both qualitative (reflection papers)…

During the Winter and Spring 2014 semesters students registered in the online offering of Human Kinetics and Recreation 1000 (N = 589) were asked to participate in two Twitter events encompassing two of the course's assessment activities. In each Twitter event, students were required to post, at minimum, one original tweet and respond to another…

The purpose of this action research was to explore students' perspectives regarding using Web 2.0 technologies to develop a community of learners. The course described in this study was a fully online course in an Educational Learning Technologies master's program at a medium-sized university in the U.S. Southwest. A variety of Web 2.0 tools…

Being actively engaged in a task is often associated with critical thinking. Cultivating critical thinking skills, such as purposefully reflecting and analyzing one's own thinking, is a major goal of higher education. However, there is a challenge in providing college students opportunities to clearly demonstrate these skills in online courses.…