Improving social presence has long been a goal for online instruction; with the shift to emergency remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, the focus on improving social presence has only become more imperative. In asynchronous online courses, social interaction typically relies on discussion groups. Despite this, little research has been…

The absence of instructional support during peer feedback prevents students from engaging with peer feedback. This study adopted regulated dialogic feedback as the instructional foundation and investigated its impact on students' engagement using an experimental research design. Students in the experimental group (n = 26) performed the feedback…

Online discussion board activities have traditionally been a primary method of providing student-to-student interaction, especially in asynchronous online classes. This study examines the impact of an alternate online discussion tool on student participation in online discussion assignments. Three identical discussion assignments were examined…

The intent of this research project was to address a perceived lack of capacity to address controversial topics or differences of perspective with civil discourse when engaged in learning in an online graduate course. Using carefully designed discussion prompts, students were asked to post, respond and reflect on their own research projects and…

The development of massive open online courses (MOOCs) has proceeded through three generations, and in all three, online discussions have been considered a critical component. Although discussions in MOOCs have the potential to promote learning, instructors have faced challenges facilitating learners' knowledge inquiry, construction, and…

The purpose of this study was to modify the Student Course Engagement Questionnaire (SCEQ) for use in varied teaching settings, including online graduate courses. The SCEQ-M was administered to 276 students enrolled in a variety of graduate-level education and counseling courses during the Spring 2016 semester. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA)…

This study examines how 136 language learners interacted with other learners in and out of a Language MOOC on English presentation. It also investigates the learner-reported reasons that encourage them to interact, and that prevent them from interacting with other learners. The results demonstrate that the level of learner-learner interaction was…

Massive open online course "for educators" (MOOC-Ed) provide opportunities for using research-based learning and teaching practices, along with new technological tools and facilitation approaches for delivering quality online professional development. The "Teaching Statistics Through Data Investigations" MOOC-Ed course was…

This study explores the combination of course structure, prompt type, and characteristics of discussion posts and their relationships with intersubjectivity. A content analysis measured the intersubjectivity of peer responses by analyzing the interaction analysis model (IAM) phase of each post and comparing with the IAM phase of the previous post.…

Creating an engaging online course where students feel part of an online community can be challenging even for the most experienced online educator. Online discussions are a common tool used to connect students in online courses, but it is often limited to text-based posts. This international research study compared the use of text-based versus…

This study aimed to evaluate how peer-to-peer interactions through writing impact student learning in introductory-level massive open online courses (MOOCs) across disciplines. This article presents the results of a qualitative coding analysis of peer-to-peer interactions in two introductory level MOOCs: English Composition I: Achieving Expertise…

The analysis of case studies is an important constructivist instructional strategy that shows potential for engaging students in asynchronous online discussions. However, little is known about the use of audio-based discussions to promote this type of analysis. Twenty-nine students from two sections enrolled in an online instructional design…

This paper presents two novel network methods developed for education research. These methods were used to investigate online discussions and the structure of students' background knowledge in a blended university course for pre-service teachers (n = 11). Consequently, these measures were used for correlation analysis. The social network analysis…

Many instructors question the move to online teaching and learning and it is often met with resistance as they fear that on-line learning will be more structurally didactic. In particular, one of the major concerns is that the value of face-to-face discussions will be lost. This is a core concern for courses that require the development of…

We report on a study of how instructors in an online management classroom aim to develop critical reflection through asynchronous discussions. There is an ongoing debate centered on improving asynchronous discussions in online management education but insights into how these discussions could be facilitated to promote critical reflection remains…