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Instructional potential of online discussion tool.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

This article presents an action research approach to understanding how best to use an online learning environment such as a discussion board as instructional tool. The study took place over three semesters in a college course with three groups of students. The result of the study indicates that when used as an integral part of instructional strategies, online discussion board activities can lead to learning and can be perceived more positively by learners.

Introduction

Available research on online learning environments has focused mostly on learners' interaction pattern. However, attention is beginning to shift to studies of the kind of online learning environments that produce optimal effects in terms of learner and learning outcomes (Walker, 2001). Coles and Knowles (2000) encourage the teacher, the "knower" and "knowledge producer," to become actively involved in classroom research and help "identify practice and practical contexts as starting, not ending, points of theory and knowledge generation" (p. 9).

Action research provides educators with the tool to inform and improve their practice. Through action research, educators "study their practice and its context, explore the research base for ideas, compare what they find to their current practice, participate in training to support needed change, and study the effects on themselves and their students and colleagues" (Calhoun, 2002, p. 18). This article presents an action research conducted to understand how best to facilitate college students' learning in an online learning environment.

Theoretical Framework

Many uses of online learning environments today involve the so-called blended model or hybrid instructional approaches in which online learning is combined with another method, typically classroom instruction (Troha, 2002). Computer-mediated or electronic communication has been the most widely used of the learning environments, because it provides a new medium for extending students' interaction with learning opportunities beyond the limitation of space and time (McAnear, 2002). Electronic communication could take the form of real time (synchronous) or delayed (asynchronous) conversation. While synchronous communication provides the advantage of "face-to-face" interaction between two or more people communicating with each other at the same time (though not necessarily in the same location), asynchronous communication forum such as the discussion board lends more structure to discussion and engages reflective thinking (Jonassen, 2000).

Online discussion board facilitates students' constructive social learning, because it allows them time to reflect on what they are learning, and through communication of that with others, may lead to conceptual change. Reflective thinking is a necessary component in the constructivist learning environment. Reflective thinking involves deliberation in which meaning is socially negotiated. "Social negotiation enables learners to construct common interpretations of events and objects ..." (Jonassen, 2000, p. 13). Active interpretations lead to ownership of thoughts that are less likely to degenerate over time. For a novice in this learning environment, expert scaffolding is needed to facilitate collaborative knowledge construction and conceptual change (Dabbagh, 2003; Jonassen, 2000). Expert scaffolding begins with selection of activities that will promote students engagement. It involves designing assignments that foster critical thinking and promote meaningful learning. It also includes modeling, prompting, and rewarding active participation.

The Study

The study began as an unplanned outcome of teaching a course in technology applications to an undergraduate class, but became a three-semester study. The basic question that the study attempted to answer was how the discussion board (asynchronous communication environment) can be more than just a placeholder for student-generated information, and a medium through which students can collaboratively construct meaningful knowledge. Action research was the primary approach used to conduct the study. Action research allows a teacher to systematically...

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