Using asynchronous discussions to enhance student participation in CS courses

Bhagyavati,; Kurkovsky, Stan; Whitehead, Christopher

doi:10.1145/1047344.1047393

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…We were particularly interested in an online environment that would enable hands-on teaching and learning, facilitate productive and focused participation, support the development of problem-solving skills, and create opportunities for students to interact and work together. We concur that a course management system, such as Blackboard, is very useful for disseminating and exchanging course materials and student work submissions, as well as supporting asynchronous communication via announcements posting and discussion boards [3] [15]. However, it inherently limits the transfer of effective practices historically linked to a traditional classroom [8], where students and instructor belong to a social entity governed by direct interaction in real time, unobstructed by any kind of technological mediation.…”

Section: The Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The benefits of online course management are obvious. From posted course materials to timely announcements, mediated asynchronous group discussion boards, online examinations, or class grade books updated in real-time, course management systems improve dissemination of information and enable course participation outside the classroom [3] [15]. The teaching experience with this kind of support has matured and best common practices have emerged [12] [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Teaching and learning in live online classrooms

Sabin

Higgs

2007

Proceedings of the 8th ACM SIGITE Conference on Information Technology Education

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Online presence of information and services is pervasive. Teaching and learning are no exception. Courseware management systems play an important role in enhancing instructional delivery for either traditional day, full-time students or non-traditional evening, party-time adult learners enrolled in online programs. While online course management tools are with no doubt practical, they limit, however, live or synchronous communication to "chat" rooms, whose discourse has little in common with face-to-face class communication. A more recent trend in online teaching and learning is the adoption and integration of web conferencing tools to enable live online classrooms and recreate the ethos of traditional face-to-face sessions.In this paper we present the experience we have had with the adoption of the LearnLinc® web conferencing tool, an iLinc Communications, Inc. product. We have coupled LearnLinc with Blackboard®, for the online and hybrid computer science courses we offered in the past academic year in the evening undergraduate and graduate computer science programs at Rivier College. Twelve courses, enrolling over 150 students, have used the synchronous online teaching capabilities of LearnLinc. Students who took courses in the online or hybrid format could experience a comparable level of interaction, participation, and collaboration as in traditional classes.We solicited student feedback by administering a student survey to over 100 students. The 55% response rate produced the data for this paper's study. We report on the study's findings and show students' rankings of evaluation criteria applied to hybrid and online instructional formats, with or without a web conferencing tool. Our analysis shows that students ranked favorably LearnLinc live sessions added to Blackboard-only online classes. In addition, how they learned in live online classrooms was found to be the closest to the hybrid class experience with regard to teaching practices they perceived as most important to them, such as seeking instructor's assistance, managing time on task, and exercising problem solving skills.

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Section: The Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teaching and learning in live online classrooms

Sabin

Higgs

2007

Proceedings of the 8th ACM SIGITE Conference on Information Technology Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…This assures that all students are current and this minimizes administrative work for faculty. As for the discussion function, the literature indicates that asynchronous discussion within course management systems develops collegiality among students and provides a means of support for students [6]. The Blackboard option, termed Post a Question, encourages students to respond to fellow students' questions and allows instructor surveillance.…”

Section: Improved Communicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Blackboard Learning System: The Be All and End All in Educational Instruction?

Bradford¹,

Porciello²,

Balkon³

et al. 2007

Journal of Educational Technology Systems

160

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Blackboard Inc. provides powerful and easy-to-use systems for educational instruction, communication, and assessment. In the last three years, Blackboard Inc. has marketed two major product lines: the Blackboard Commerce Suite and the Blackboard Academic Suite. The core of the Academic suite is the Blackboard Learning System, the course management system for classroom and online educational assistance. Other course management systems and learning management systems exist, including Angel/LMS, eCollege, GNU General Public License/Linux, and LearningSpace, as well as open-source learning systems such as The Sakai Project, Open SourcePortfolio Initiative, Moodle, and uPortal. Despite the drive toward new portal commodities, the Blackboard Learning System has become the dominant e-learning software company. Is this necessarily good for higher educational learning? Members of the United University Professions Technology Issues Committee debate the issue as well as present specific applications of the Blackboard Learning System in distance learning, hybrid courses, and as didactic supplements to other electronic environment enhancement systems.

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“…It is important to note that the results indicated in these studies may overestimate what students think they learned, as novel instructional approaches and self-report tools may be influencing factors. To triangulate this hunch, the investigators in two of the nine studies measured student perceptions against instructor observations; confirming stated results (Backhouse, 2005;Bhagyavati et al, 2005). Since positive findings were reported, it seems to be a given that undergraduates prefer to use active learning techniques in their college classrooms.…”

Section: Instructional Methodsmentioning

confidence: 66%

Developing Information Technology Fluency in College Students: An Investigation of Learning Environments and Learner Characteristics

Sardone

2011

JITE:Research

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Executive SummaryThe confluence of powerful technologies of computers and network connectivity has brought explosive growth to the field of Information Technology (IT). The problem presented in this study is whether the type of learning environment where IT concepts are taught to undergraduates has a relationship to the development of IT fluency and course satisfaction. The literature suggested that, if learning environments based on constructivist learning strategies were used, students would achieve IT fluency as well as those who studied in a traditional setting but they might be more satisfied.This paper is organized as follows. First, the problem is introduced followed by a review of the definition of IT fluency, then the paper moves to discuss learning environments and other associated factors relevant to this causal-comparative analysis. Next, the research design of the study is discussed, to include the four modes of inquiry used and the research questions that guided inquiry. A detailed data analysis follows, findings are presented, and the conclusion highlights findings. Recommendations are geared to instructors in higher education business/technology programs interested in designing instruction in conjunction with constructivist learning environments.

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Using asynchronous discussions to enhance student participation in CS courses

Cited by 8 publications

References 3 publications

Teaching and learning in live online classrooms

Teaching and learning in live online classrooms

The Blackboard Learning System: The Be All and End All in Educational Instruction?

Developing Information Technology Fluency in College Students: An Investigation of Learning Environments and Learner Characteristics

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