The Structure of Discussions in an Online Communication Course: What Do Students Find Most Effective?

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the perspectives of students regarding what was effective about the way in which the asynchronous discussions were structured in an upper level online organizational communication course. Surveys from 27 student participants were used, with questions focused upon the structure of discussions in the online course as compared to other online courses and to traditional classrooms. Results indicate structured and relevant discussion prompts, small group placement, visible postings, and required weekly postings as significant factors to student success. The majority of students also found online discussions more effective than live discussions in traditional classrooms. Many of the findings offer support for Garrison, Anderson, and Archer’s (2000) Community of Inquiry (COI) Model and previous research on effective strategies in structuring online discussions.

Research based practices for improving the effectiveness of asynchronous online discussion boards.

“…However, there is some research that suggests this may not be the best approach. Jacobi (2017) surveyed students in her course about factors they found most effective in the structure of the discussion. Students self-reported that they found it beneficial to read the postings of others prior to posting their own responses, noting that it helped with comprehension and fostered deeper thinking.…”

“…According to many educators, the type of question prompts instructors use directly relates to the quality of students’ responses (Bradley et al, 2008; Howell et al, 2017), and this view is shared by students (Jacobi, 2017). In fact, instructors’ use of lower-level questions can discourage student participation while higher-level questions can lead to high levels of cognitive presence (Howell, Akapnudo, Chen, Sutherlin, & James, 2014).…”

Encouraging Feminist Discussion in Asynchronous Online Teaching

“…This indicates that they are actively participating in the conversation without the need to be posting their own ideas independently. As Jacobi (2017) noted, students respond well when they can see other students’ supporting or engaging with their posts on discussion boards.…”

Scaffolding instruction for improvement in learning English language skills

“…Reinforcing the students' reflections and engagement with professional practice, the three emerging themes point to the following: i) operating scaffolding instruction in small groups was constructive, convenient, and efficient as Race [44] also supports small-group contexts for 'deep learning'; ii) asynchronous online discussions on independent reading tasks which were pre-planned and wellstructured with clear scaffolding instructions contributed to better student participation. A university level study [45] refers to asynchronous online discussions on a reading task and small group setting as significant factors in student success. In addition, a study conducted in a Saudi Arabian university [28] emphasizes, the success in using and benefiting from instructional strategies depends on the amount of effort and skills that the teacher has rather than his pedagogical content knowledge; and iii) in practicing scaffolding, especially in mixed-ability small groups, 'as and when needed' [23] is an important mantra for success.…”