Grounded on cognitive elaboration theory, this study aims to investigate how students' dyadic conceptual elaboration changed with different group compositions, namely presence/absence of instructor and unfamiliar students in online asynchronous discussion. Adopting a repeated measure experimental design, data were collected from third-year…

This study investigated: (a) how the task relevance of postings differed between anonymous versus identified online discussions in elementary school, and (b) how game-like conversations with story characters impacted the task relevance of postings. A total of 342 fourth graders in Slovenia participated in the study. During one and a half-hour,…

Distance learning is becoming increasingly prevalent. If education is a community affair, how do we digitally design the conditions for learning at a distance for our students? This research examines a distance learning environment within a Master's Degree course created using online discussion forums, based upon the Community of Inquiry model…

The shift of evidence-based, active and inquiry-based pedagogy to online modalities has typically been done with a synchronous model, using video conferencing technology to facilitate interaction and collaboration amongst students. Such an approach can be infeasible for some students and create inequitable situations within a class. This paper…

This book supports teaching and learning through online discussion in higher education contexts such as universities, colleges, and polytechnics. It presents an explicit focus on popular asynchronous discussion tools and methods, with attention to disciplinary variety and key principles for successful learning-oriented discussion. It tackles the…

This study uses self-determination theory to examine the effect of gamification on the students' behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement in online discussion forums by providing more instructor badges than automatic badges and using a quasi-experimental one-group pretest-posttest design. Behavioral engagement was measured using the number…

A range of studies into the efficacy of online discussion forums is available, and this study seeks to add to the body of evidence around students' experiences of using online discussion forums within a distance learning context. The Open University (OU) is still the UK's largest provider of distance higher education. OU distance learners are…

Having discussions and working together in groups with other learners is the indicator of the collaboration aspect of engagement. Collaborative engagement can be fostered through active learning approaches, since they provide more opportunities for interaction among learners. In Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) classrooms, small…

This thematic analysis utilizes teacher insights from their experiences in an online professional development (PD) course on early reading instruction to determine course design features educators perceive as being beneficial and questions and concerns educators raised during the course. We analyzed discussion forum contributions and course…

A digital wall is a tool for students to structure and register their online work on mathematical problem-solving activities that involve the coordinated use of digital technologies. How could students use such digital wall to understand mathematical concepts and to develop problem-solving competencies? The aim of this study is to analyze and…

This study employed interviews and document analysis to achieve a better understanding of the design and facilitation strategies used by online instructors in a department of educational technology at a large university in the U.S. Some distinctions were found with the literature about what strategies and activities can be used in online…

"To learn about X, observe what happens to the system when X is removed." What happens to the higher education student experience when, during a pandemic, so many of the avenues for building a sense of belonging are radically and fundamentally disrupted? How should we respond as individuals, a collective and a sector, to redress this?…

The current article was inspired by two incongruous phenomena: the perception of the lack of gender sensitivity and inclusiveness in a particular language textbook and the coronavirus disease pandemic. As we went completely remote over the past 2.5 semesters, students were encouraged to address those issues via chat and voice modalities. If there…

This teaching note outlines an innovative simulation game realized in response to post-pandemic experiential learning needs. The game introduces a fictional African country experiencing a series of political and financial shocks. Students are assigned membership in social groups and must implement the national policies that would improve outcomes…

Online adjunct faculty in Christian higher education have an important role in training students for church and ministry leadership. While their role is critical to many programs, online faculty often feel a sense of isolation from the university community. The purpose of this research was to examine whether a faculty cohort with a focus on…