Online learning is one of the fastest growing trends in education. A practical problem faced by instructional designers and online instructors is how to design an interactive learning activity that benefits content mastery without adding technological barriers. The online discussion forum provides quick solutions because it is usually ready for…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of online students' cognitive presence in a peer-facilitated discussion environment, and to identify the peer facilitation techniques that can enhance cognitive presence development. In this study, 738 discussion messages were examined by both qualitative and quantitative content…

Using a convergent parallel mixed methods design, this exploratory study examined mathematics lessons in two third-grade classrooms to analyze the mathematical classroom discourse when using tutorial instructional software. A chi-square test for independence revealed statistically significant correlations between teachers use of the focusing and…

Net-based collaborative learning discourses often suffer from deficiencies such as lack of coherence and coordination. It is suggested that the provision of two functionalities, referencing and typing, which learners may optionally use to ground their contributions during a chat-based discourse, can improve collaborative learning. In particular,…

In asynchronous threaded discussions, messages posted near the end of the week provide less time for students to critically examine and respond to ideas presented in the messages than messages posted early in the week. This study examined how the day in which messages are posted (early, midweek and weekend) in computer-supported collaborative…

This study examined online group discussion from students' perspectives to determine what characteristics students identify as meaningful to their online learning. Participants were 142 graduate students in the Southeast. The multiple regression results revealed that quality of online discussion was positively associated with communication media,…

This study explored student teachers' cognitive presence and learning achievements by integrating the SOP[superscript 2] Model in which self-study (S), online group discussion (O) and double-stage presentations (P[superscript 2]) were implemented in the flipped classroom. The research was conducted at a university in Taiwan with 31 student…

The ubiquity of online programs in higher education requires continued focus on designing instructional environments that improve students' learning. We examine students' perceptions of sense of community and learning, as well as academic achievement, using grades obtained from a final project and participation in asynchronous discussion forums.…

Due to the increased importance and usage of self-managed virtual teams, many recent studies have examined factors that affect their success. One such factor that merits examination is the configuration or composition of virtual teams. This article tackles this point by (1) empirically testing trait-configuration effects on virtual team…

This study examined the relationship between community cohesion and computer-mediated conferencing (CMC), as well as other variables potentially associated with the development of a learning community. Within the context of a graduate-level course in instructional design (a core course in the Masters of Distance Education program at Athabasca…

In Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), struggling learners often seek help by posting questions in discussion forums. Unfortunately, given the large volume of discussion in MOOCs, instructors may overlook these learners' posts, detrimentally impacting the learning process and exacerbating attrition. In this paper, we present YouEDU, an…

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of using online discussion forums (ODFs) on students' learning, particularly on their achievement. In order to achieve this, a quasi-experimental design was implemented during one academic semester at one of the leading universities in Saudi Arabia. The sample of this study involved undergraduate…

The aim of this paper is to present and discuss some of the evidence regarding the resources that students use when they establish relationships between a contextual situation and an ordinary differential equation (ODE). We present research results obtained from work by seven students in a graduate level course in mathematics education, where they…

The aim of the study was to explore the relationship between degree of participation and learning outcomes in an e-learning course on medical informatics. Overall activity in using course materials and degree of participation in the discussion forums of an online course were studied among 39 medical students. Students were able to utilise the…

This study reports the impact of high sensitivity to early exchange in 11th-grade, CSCL triads solving well- and ill-structured problems in Newtonian Kinematics. A mixed-method analysis of the evolution of participation inequity (PI) in group discussions suggested that participation levels tended to get locked-in relatively early on in the…