Online communication is increasingly used in education, but it is not without problems. One significant difficulty is a lack of social presence. Social presence relates to the need for users of technology-based communication to perceive each other as real people. Low social presence can be a particular issue in text-based, asynchronous systems…

This narrative inquiry collective case study investigated the experiences of six sixth grade American Indian males of the Lumbee tribe who struggle with reading. Bounded within an asynchronous closed wiki site, students from three sixth grade classes participated in online threaded discussions and created, posted, and viewed multimedia projects…

Peer assistance activities can strengthen online learning environments. And yet, like other professional adult learners, working post licensure nurses attending university part time to upgrade their credentials may have limited interest in student-to-student interaction. Some intentionally choose asynchronous self-paced courses so they can work on…

A hybrid course, which combines the face-to-face interactions of a traditional course with the flexibility of an online course, provides an alternative option for educating students in a new media environment. While educators often interact with their students through various electronic learning management systems that are set up within the…

Asynchronous discussions are a useful instructional resource in the online communication course. In discussion groups students have the opportunity to actively participate and interact with students and the instructor. Asynchronous communication allows for flexibility because "participants can interact with significant amounts of time between…

Web 2.0 technologies have a range of possibilities for fostering constructivist learning and observational learning. This is due to the available applications which allow for synchronous and asynchronous interaction and the sharing of knowledge between users. Web 2.0 tools include online social media applications which have potential pedagogical…

Telecollaboration is defined as a collaborative activity that involves people from distant geographic locations working together through Internet tools and other resources. This technique has not been frequently used in learning experiences and has produced diverse academic results, as well as degrees of satisfaction. This paper describes a…

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether asynchronous video posts and synchronous videoconferencing would create higher levels of teaching and social presence within an online course when compared with the university's current text-based discussion platform. Undergraduate students in an online teacher education course were randomly…

"Online Teaching in the Digital Age" provides educators with the essential knowledge needed to successfully develop and teach an online course. Throughout this practical hands-on guide, the authors offer 15 years of personal online teaching experience in language accessible to both the novice and advanced online educator. Developed through theory…

Online discussion is becoming more widespread as online classes move to the forefront of education. However, information for teachers about effective use of the online method of instruction is not readily available. This article identifies three models of discussion, extracts the elements from those models that will work well online, and combines…

Asynchronous online threaded discussions are widely recognized as a tool to enhance learning in the virtual classroom. While they can serve as a mechanism for reinforcing material and promoting a deeper understanding of course content, discussion boards often lack rich and dynamic dialogue, and instead serve as a field of obligatory discourse,…

This study investigated course design factors influencing social presence and the development of ICT self-efficacy. Instructional design factors that promoted authentic uses of threaded discussions as a vehicle to establish social presence, self-directed learning and cooperative learning resulted in 900 posts in a semester, when no posts were…

Over the past 20 years, researchers have begun to examine data from asynchronous computer-mediated student discussions in courses. Some results have shown students to demonstrate lower or mid-level thinking skills, while others suggest students routinely demonstrate higher-order thinking skills. The authors investigated the relationship between…

Asynchronous online discussion forums are increasingly common in blended learning environments but the relationship to student learning outcomes has not been reported for anatomy teaching. Forums were monitored in two multicampus anatomy courses; an introductory first year course and a second year physiotherapy-specific course. The forums are…

People are increasingly looking to online social communities as ways of communicating. However, even as participation in social networking is increasing, online communities often fail to coalesce. Noted success factors for online communities are linked to the community's purpose and culture. They are also related to structures that allow for…