This study aims to investigate and analyze the attitudes and opinions of computer science students at two academic colleges of education with regards to the use of structured and unstructured discussion forums in computer science courses conducted entirely online. Fifty-two students participated in two online courses. The students in each course…

Online discussions enable peer-learning by allowing students to communicate ideas on what they have learned in and beyond the classroom. Peer-learning through online discussions is fostered when online discussions are interactive. Interactivity occurs when students refer to and use perspectives shared by peers, and elaborate, respond to, or…

Research, reflection, and evaluation of online classes indicated a need for graduated scaffolding for first time students experiencing distance learning. In order to promote student engagement in the online learning process, I designed SOS for beginning online students. Sixty-three online students were offered an opportunity to participate in a…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the process of analysing online discussion and argue for the merits of mixed methods. Much research of online participation and e-learning has been either message-focused or person-focused. The former covers methodologies such as content and discourse analysis, the latter interviewing and surveys.…

This study examined differences in student satisfaction and perceptions of online teamwork in two cohorts of an undergraduate educational technology course: one delivered fully asynchronously and the other incorporating synchronous Google Hangouts sessions in student online teamwork. Participants included 50 undergraduate students at a large…

The aim of this study was to gain insights into how language learners perceive two online interactional contexts and how these perceptions impact the learners' participation in eTandem learning. This study incorporated pair work with group discussion as interactional contexts, connecting Korean language learners with English language learners.…

Online discussions have become inherent components of both face-to-face and distance education college courses, yet they often fail to provide much benefit to students' learning outcomes. One reason behind this phenomenon is the lack of or inadequate scaffolding or guidance provided to students when participating on asynchronous discussion boards.…

This paper examines learner attitudes, self-efficacy beliefs, and anxiety in a beginners' Spanish Language Massive Open Online Course (LMOOC) by answering three research questions: (1) how do learners feel about acquiring speaking skills on an LMOOC?; (2) do they experience anxiety with regards to speaking?; and (3) do their self-efficacy beliefs…

One of the goals of teacher education is to prepare our citizens to communicate in a variety of ways. In our present society, communication using digital media has become essential. Although online discussions are a common component of many online courses, engaging students in online discussions has been a challenge. This study queried 86…

Online course tools such as WebCT or Manaba+R are popularly used in university classes and enhance learners' understanding of their course contents. In addition, teachers try to utilize these online course tools for their students such as giving their students online discussions, providing students with additional materials and so forth. However,…

This study explored what instructors can do to improve student depth of thinking in online discussion boards (DBs). Participants were graduate students enrolled in online courses within a college of education in the southwest United States. Measurement consisted of discourse analysis of posts in DBs and student self-assessment of dispositions,…

This study investigates students' involvement in Facebook® as a course management system (CMS), Facebook acceptance, and the relationships between the two. The study used Facebook as a CMS in two freshman courses and employed mixed method as part of an action-research approach. Forty-two students participated in the study, and 12 of those students…

This article explores cooperative learning in choral conducting education. The five characteristics of cooperative learning identified by Adams and Hamm ((1996). "Cooperative learning: Critical thinking and collaboration across the curriculum" (2nd ed.). Springfield, IL: Charles Thomas Publishers): positive interdependence; face-to-face…

This study investigates a computer-assisted pronunciation training (CAPT) technique that combines oral reading with peer review to improve pronunciation of Taiwanese English major students. In addition to traditional in-class instruction, students were given a short passage every week along with a recording of the respective text, read by a native…

Existing literature on education and technology has frequently highlighted the usefulness of online discussion forums for distance courses; however, the majority of such investigations have focused their attention only on text-based forums. The objective of this paper is to determine if the embedding of streamed videos in online discussion forums…