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Many consider rich argumentation to be the core of quality discussions and view it as a vehicle to solving problems and clarifying content. This study examined the influence of a discussion leader intervention on the quality of online argumentation and interactivity. Subjects were 44 undergraduate students who participated in online discussions on a technology issue over two weeks. Participants who received pre-determined instructions from the leader prior to the issue discussion were more likely to produce enriched argumentation and increased interaction than the control participants who did not receive specific instructions prior to the issue discussion. Results indicated that students participating in groups receiving specific argumentation instructions from the leader produced better online argumentation for the second week and exhibited increased interactivity patterns for both weeks.

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Although there is a push in education to increase the amount of technologies used in the classroom much of the recent literature emphasizes a need to investigate ways to improve the instructional methods used when incorporating technology in education. The focus of the present research is to investigate an instructional technique used in an asynchronous online discussion (i.e., prompts versus no prompts). This research investigates pre-service teachers' positions on the use of technology in K-12 classrooms. Participants were students enrolled in an online Educational Psychology course at a Southwestern urban university; the online discussion transcripts were the data source for this qualitative research design. The treatment group received specific directions and feedback and the control group received very limited directions and feedback. The results of the study indicated that given specific guidelines and expectations for the discussion, the treatment group outperformed the control group in every category consistently within the small group analysis and the between group analysis. In addition, the in-depth analysis points to several findings with regard to how pre-service teachers view Educational Technology in schools, based on the dilemma posed in the online discussion forum.