Discussion boards are a common component of asynchronous online courses. While many teacher preparation courses utilize traditional text-based discussion boards, university faculty are increasingly designing innovative approaches to asynchronous online discussions. There is significant research regarding the effectiveness of varied discussion…

Class participation has long been valued by faculty members interested in engaging students in the learning process. This paper discusses class participation and shares participation techniques that promote active student engagement during class meetings. Emphasis is placed on techniques that invite a larger number of students into a course's…

One of the goals of teacher education is to prepare our citizens to communicate in a variety of ways. In our present society, communication using digital media has become essential. Although online discussions are a common component of many online courses, engaging students in online discussions has been a challenge. This study queried 86…

We study user behavior in the courses offered by a major massive online open course (MOOC) provider during the summer of 2013. Since social learning is a key element of scalable education on MOOC and is done via online discussion forums, our main focus is on understanding forum activities. Two salient features of these activities drive our…

Academic literacy practices can be alienating for new undergraduates, yet academic success depends on writing in ways that the academy deems acceptable and is related to the identity positions available to students. I describe an intervention in which aspects of academic practice were made visible and students participated collaboratively in…

Scotland's "Curriculum for Excellence" affords greater autonomy and flexibility to teachers and schools through advocating curriculum integration and experiential and active learning with greater emphasis on the processes of learning rather than detailed learning outcomes. It is in this context that the present article is grounded. This…

This study attempts to examine how students participate and interact in different discussion modules organized with different group size in an online environment. It adopts a case study methodology where full semester online course with two small-group and three class-wide discussion forums was examined. The researcher counted the number of…

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…

Purpose: This qualitative study explored the implementation of Lesson Study, a kind of teacher-directed and bottom-up approach of the Japanese model of teacher professional development in the Malaysian education context. It seeks to answer the question of how implementation of lesson study as an innovative professional development model among…

Universities in Europe face a variety of reform initiatives, and university reform can be seen as a wicked problem that should be resolved through collaborative efforts. In Finland, there has been considerable resistance to proposed reforms, with university personnel complaining that they have not been heard. Students, on the other hand, seem…

Asynchronous online discussions are broadly used to support social learning. This paper reports on an undergraduate class's online discussion activities over one semester. Applying social network analysis, this study revealed a participation gap among students reflected by their varied levels of network prestige. The low-prestige group initiated…

The purpose of this study was to investigate how high-ability students experienced their participation in an affective curriculum through small-group discussions in a diverse, university-based, summer enrichment program for talented youth. The investigation included two closely related studies. The first study included 77 high-ability students…

More and more educational institutions are moving towards online distance learning. Although asynchronous online learning overcomes the constraints of time, place and pace, online distance learners feel isolated due to the lack of real-time communications. One possible solution for overcoming this sense of isolation is regulating student online…

This study investigates students' involvement in Facebook® as a course management system (CMS), Facebook acceptance, and the relationships between the two. The study used Facebook as a CMS in two freshman courses and employed mixed method as part of an action-research approach. Forty-two students participated in the study, and 12 of those students…

The purpose of this study was to interpret students' participation in terms of social and argumentation norms to improve understanding of social interaction in scientific argumentation. Therefore, the study sought to identify social and argumentation norms formed in group argumentation and to explore changes in students' participation as lessons…