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In this case study, we examined the influence of five groups of communication activities on the quality of students' contributions to online discussion. The activities were the nominal group technique, debate, invited expert, WebQuest and reflective deliberation. Quality of discussion was operationalised as cognitive presence , a construct developed to investigate the role of critical discourse in higher, distance education contexts. Using the quantitative content analysis technique, the postings of 19 students in an undergraduate university course were assigned to one of the four categories of cognitive presence. Across the five activities, the proportion and number of contributions categorised in the highest phases of cognitive presence was low (20.21%), but was highest during the Webquest and debate activities. There are three advantageous qualities of these two activities, we argue:

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This study was conducted to extend our understanding of the impacts on instruction when asynchronous text-based Internet communication technology is integrated into distance courses. The researchers interviewed twelve university instructors to examine Berge's (1995) four roles of the use of technologies as an interview guide. Moore's (1972) theory of transactional distance was used to interpret the data. The results revealed that as university instructors in distance education programs gain experience, they find it is possible to translate many face-to-face instructional strategies to the online classroom and learn the technical aspects necessary for effective use of asynchronous text-based Internet communication tools. However, most instructors continue to experience a tension between structure, dialogue, and autonomy.