Social learning online: A study examining the use of threaded discussions

Colleges and universities are providing access to a broad range of students through online courses. With the increase of enrollment and demand, it is necessary to better comprehend the role and relationship of the tools available within those courses. The primary purpose of this research effort was to explore the factors that affect the overall perceived student sense of community in a threaded discussion aspect of a fully online course delivered at the university level. The researcher investigated compiled through structural equation modeling path analysis with 10 independent variables and perceived sense of community as the single dependent variable. Both the measurement model, defined by the theoretical framework, and structural model were confirmed for goodness of fit. The data indicated that statistically significant positive relationships existed between age, task complexity level, and sense of community. Interaction effects between age and complexity level were discovered and tested to find the task complexity for younger students had the relationships of social ability, student demographics, task complexity, motivation, and student perceived sense of community within the online classroom. The expectation was that these factors would have a relationship with overall sense of community. Samples of participants from two small universities were chosen to take a five-part survey over a two-month period. The results from 229 participants are a positive relationship with overall perceived sense of community. Significant negative relationships existed between social ability, postsecondary level and sense of community. The other variables of gender and student motivation were not found to be statistically significant, but this lack of significance provides interesting implications for theory and research. Further research pertaining to online course tools, tasks behind online discussion forums, and student expectations should be conducted

Effectiveness of Online Education in a High School Honors American Government Classroom

The internet is a tool that many students use to do research in the classroom. Students are asked to use the internet for a variety of activities ranging from general searches for information to completing a course online. The effectiveness of online courses is of interest to many educators who want to know if this method is worth pursuing. Teachers are also interested in understanding student attitudes toward online education. This study examined the effectiveness of online learning as a teaching method in an Honors American Government class that was taught using Blackboard as the delivery system. The participants in this class were students who met the criteria for the Honors program at Hutchinson High School, a high school in southern Kansas. Test and essay results showed that there was no significant difference concerning effectiveness between online learning and traditional learning methods. Survey results showed that students in the experimental group were motivated to achieve in all their classes, believed that interpersonal communication was important and that they were comfortable using the computer. Students also believed that receiving timely feedback and being self-motivated were important to success in an online class