Social annotation plays a crucial role in nurturing and sustaining a collaborative reading community, offering the potential to enhance students' motivation and performance within socially supportive learning environments. Nonetheless, research on the dynamic changes in student engagement in social annotation remains limited. This study aims to…

The purpose of the study was to examine (a) students' social annotation behaviors and engagement change in an undergraduate course throughout the semester, and (b) which social annotation behaviors impact active engagement time. A total of 91 university students' social annotation behaviors, as well as their active engagement time in readings,…

Self-regulated learning (SRL) and metacognitive processes are important in education because they contribute to effective learning and improved academic performance. Metacognitive SRL may be facilitated by the implementation of computer technology. This qualitative study examined the presence and use of metacognitive SLR processes among elementary…

To challenge resistance to required literature courses, instructors quiz students regularly on the readings; they also require examinations that ask students to define key terms, to answer background questions focused on authors and dates, to identify key passages by author/title/speaker, and to explain the thematic significance of each quotation.…

Designing courses for optimal level student learning is dependent upon student participation. This study examined one way to encourage further student participation in online discussions. Of specific importance was how to encourage students to read their student-colleagues' online discussion responses: not just a minimum number of responses but…

Although L2 reading is traditionally framed as an individual enterprise, digital annotation tools (DATs) have recently been developed allowing groups of readers to collaborate and provide mutual scaffolding through collective annotation of texts (Blyth, 2014; Thoms, Sung, & Poole, 2017). These tools reframe L2 reading as an interactive process…

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of virtual literature circles (VLCs) on Chinese university English as a foreign language (EFL) students' independent English reading. The importance of independent reading for EFL students to develop critical thinking, language proficiency, and good readership was extensively discussed and…

What happens to a Foundations of Diversity and Equity in Schools course when the main mode of instruction changes? The shifting of the class from face-to-face to virtual asynchronous instruction due to COVID-19 led to a transformation of the activity of the course. To replace the use of various discussion techniques, the author redesigned the…

While many research methods courses challenge students to make sense of their own researcher identities as they relate to research paradigms and perspectives, there is a lack of research that examines how students actually go about constructing these identities, particularly at the level of discourse. In this study, we attended to graduate…

In this paper, we describe and investigate small group discussions of assigned readings in an online version of a "triple-entry activity" in a blended course used an annotation tool, "Marginalia". We wondered if students would interact in this structured, critical, reflective reading activity as effectively online as they had…

As online course offerings continue to evolve, researchers have examined many strategies for improving the online learning experience for both the instructor and the student. Asynchronous, online discussions are one of the most common components of online courses. This article provides information about the best practices for facilitating…

Web-based collaborative annotation tools can facilitate communication among students and their instructors through online reading and communication. Collaborative reading fosters peer interaction and is an innovative way to facilitate discussion and participation in larger enrollment courses. It can be especially powerful as it creates an…

For novice and experienced instructors alike, facilitating online discussions can seem like a daunting prospect. Many ask themselves how to do so in an effective and meaningful way that actually adds to the course experience rather than seeming like mere busywork. The MANIC discussion strategy is one that promotes deeper student interaction with…

This article includes a review of the literature on personal epistemology and the reflective judgment model and applies these theoretical concepts to undergraduate students who engage in service-learning projects. The application will provide instructors with greater understanding of students' abilities and limitations in their…

The authors realized that participating in a book club with friends has often provided the incentive to read books they normally wouldn't choose on their own. Book clubs have offered them relaxed and informal places to share and compare opinions, to explore texts and authors they wouldn't as readily appreciate or fully understand without friends…