Asynchronous online discussion (AOD) can provide an interactive educational experience through formation of learning communities that enable students to develop professional knowledge and critical thinking skills as they engage with colleagues and instructors. We find significant differences between undergraduate and graduate student perceptions of the efficacy of AOD. In this paper, we explore the pedagogical benefits of AOD and describe considerations that guide how they are designed and managed effectively and efficiently. Additionally, we report the results of a survey that measures student perceptions of the extent to which AOD provided a positive educational experience and contributed to their learning.
Tag: course design
Social Learning via Improved Daily Writing Assignments, Implementation of Study Groups, and Well-Structured Daily Class Discussions
As recent scholarship emphasizes the value of social learning, this article describes a course redesign that sought to encourage such social learning. This multi-year course redesign includes altering a daily writing assignment to make it more specific and to make it a contribution to the learning of a study group. Data was collected and evaluated to explore the effectiveness of this change. The author also offers reflections on how the course redesign encouraged social learning via study groups and how the redesign made daily class discussions more deliberate and robust.