Student contribution in asynchronous online discussion: a review of the research and empirical exploration

The increasingly prevalent use of Internet in schools and homes has resulted in asynchronous online discussion becoming an increasingly common means to facilitate dialogue between instructors and students, as well as students and students beyond the boundaries of their physical classrooms. This article is organized into two main sections. In the first section, we review 50 empirical studies in order to identify the factors leading to limited student contribution. Limited student contribution is defined as students making few or no postings, or students exhibiting surface-level thinking or low-level knowledge construction in online discussions. We then identify the various empirically based guidelines to address the factors. In the second section, we discuss three potential guideline dilemmas that educators may encounter: (a) use of grades, (b) use of number of posting guideline, and (c) instructor-facilitation. These are guidelines where previous empirical research shows mixed results when they are implemented. Acknowledging the dilemmas is essential for educators and researchers to make informed decisions about the discussion guidelines they are considering implementing. Finally, we report two exploratory case studies on student-facilitation that we conducted. Using students as facilitators may be an alternative solution to educators who wish to avoid the instructor-facilitation guideline dilemma.     

A national profile of school-based transition programs for deaf adolescents.

In this study, the transition programs of 326 secondary educational programs for deaf and severely hearing-impaired adolescents were surveyed. Three types of programs were surveyed: residential, mainstream, and "other" (a combination of the first two programs). Sixty-four items depicting desirable transition characteristics were included in the survey, and each item was rated by the programs on a value scale and an implementation scale. Analyses of variance were calculated to determine if there were statistically significant differences among the three program types for each individual survey item on the two rating scales. Based on the data, it appears that the residential schools had higher implementation rates than the mainstream and other programs. All three respondent groups valued the transition items more than they had implemented them (i.e., the value scores were higher than the implementation scores). The data point out the need for researchers and educators to develop and implement more effective transition programs for deaf and severely hearing-impaired students.     

Black Faculty Facilitating Difficult Dialogues in the College Classroom: A Cross-Disciplinary Response to Racism and Racial Violence

The Urban Review - This article examines how three Black tenure-track faculty from different academic disciplines prioritized and facilitated discussions on racism and racial violence with graduate...