In this research, we investigated whether online discussions can significantly benefit students' learning in online courses. We designed an experiment by dividing 129 students who enrolled in four fully online "Introduction to Microeconomics" courses taught by the same instructor into four groups (one control group and three experimental…

This learning activity describes changes made to teach Recreation Programming in an online format, specifically the use of weekly student-led discussions on readings and films related to programming. The three components of weekly discussions (weekly summaries, weekly participation, and one-time discussion leader) are explained.

To provide insight into online learners' interests in various knowledge from course discussion texts, modeling learners' sentiments and interests at different granularities are of great importance. In this article, the proposed framework combines a deep convolutional neural network and a hierarchical topic model to discover the hidden structure of…

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 purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to understand biblical worldview development of church members at Community Church. The theory guiding this study was Garrison et al.'s (2010) Community of Inquiry. The central research question for this study was: Using a blended online learning approach based on instructional design and…

This qualitative study aims to improve accessibility and equity in digital spaces by identifying the prevalent mismatch between online course design, student culture, and its connection to instructional design for teacher preparation programs. Utilizing feminist theory, we explore the intersection between community, identity, and learning within…

This study assesses the effectiveness of the curriculum for an online professional development training designed to support people working in the helping professions gain greater self-awareness about how they respond to stress and trauma in the midst of emotionally charged interactions. The training utilizes an existential, developmental, and…

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between clout and cognitive processing in massive open online course (MOOC) discussion forum posts. Cognitive processing, a category variable generated by the automated text analysis tool, Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC), is made up of six sub-scores (insight, causation, discrepancy,…

Discussion boards can provide a glimpse into the regular and substantive interaction required in online courses. Advances in technology and an increased interest in learning analytics now provides researchers with billions of data points about instructor and student interaction within a learning management system (LMS). This study used LMS data to…

Background: Deep discussions play an important role in students' online learning. However, researchers have largely focused on engaging students in deep discussions in online asynchronous forums. Few studies have investigated how to promote deep discussion via mobile instant messaging (MIM). Objectives: In this study, we applied learning…

Collaborative learning can be a worthwhile and valuable part of a student's online course experience, and interpersonal exchanges among members of an online course community often rely on greater intentionality within the design of the learning experience. We present a synergistic framework for strategic design of collaborative learning in the…

The need to identify student cognitive engagement in online-learning settings has increased with our use of online learning approaches because engagement plays an important role in ensuring student success in these environments. Engaged students are more likely to complete online courses successfully, but this setting makes it more difficult for…

The three research papers completed and compiled to make up this dissertation explore the relationship between social presence and social construction of knowledge in asynchronous online discussion forums in higher education courses in the instructional technology field. Paper 1 is a literature review of the interaction analysis model (IAM)…

The COVID-19 pandemic imposed profound changes on the way we think about undergraduate physics education. Online courses became mainstream. Exam formats were reimagined. Digital whiteboards replaced face-to-face discussions. Laboratory classes were outfitted with home-delivered supply kits. And all of us developed a more intimate knowledge of…

This paper reported an exploratory study that examined secondary school students' understanding of collaborative discourse in a computer-supported knowledge building environment in characterizing and scaffolding their engagement in productive online discourse. The participants were thirty-eight secondary school students in a visual arts course. A…