October 2004

Online Classroom October 2004 full issue PDF
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Comparing Online Peer Interaction Methods
Face-to-face instructors are increasingly turning to online communication tools to provide students the opportunities to discuss course content with peers. There are several communication modes that support this type of interaction, and in a recent study, Bill Warrick, education instructor at George Mason University, and his colleague Stacy Connors surveyed a cohort of graduate students in an instructional technology master’s program on the quality of the learning experience, peer interactions, and ease of use of e-mail, bulletin board, and synchronous chat for collaborative group work.

Tips from the Pros: Planning Discussion Board Use
Chances are your online course includes the use of a discussion board to some extent. But have you carefully thought about how you use it? The following questions adapted from a discussion board checklist from the University of Wisconsin-Stout can help keep you on track.

How Faculty Opinions of OLEs Affect Course Quality
An important dimension to course quality is the faculty member’s perception of their quality. A study that looked at faculty perceptions of the online learning experience and their reasons for using OLEs (see reference below) found that the reasons faculty use educational technologies may affect their perceptions of the quality of the learning experience.

Using the Debate as a Teaching Tool in the Online Classroom
By Kam Jugdev, Ph.D., PMP, Carrie Markowski, BComm, BEd, and Thomas Mengel, Ph.D., PMP
This article presents an interdisciplinary course team's experiences in incorporating debate into online MBA courses at Athabasca University.

Making the Most of Text-Based Instruction
Having taught online for more than five years, at several institutions, using a variety of course management systems, Thomas C. Richards, professor of information systems at the University of North Texas, sticks to a text-based approach rather than using the latest multimedia. He does this because of the amount of time and other resources it would take to develop and because some students do not have high-speed internet connections would likely have trouble accessing any audio and video course elements he might include.

Instructor’s ‘Restrained Participation’ in Threaded Discussions Gives Students Control, Ownership of Learning
When Karen Swan, research professor in the Research Center for Educational Technology at Kent State University, taught online courses, she used a very simple rubric for threaded discussions: each posting should relate to the course material and the student’s experience. This, combined with a technique she calls “restrained participation,” helped achieve her goal of eliciting diverse opinions.