Peer moderation of asynchronous online discussions: an exploratory study of peer e-moderating behaviour

This study explored patterns of e-moderating behaviour students performed when they were assigned as peer moderators of asynchronous online discussions in a reciprocal manner. Eighty-four students from an undergraduate blended course were observed during a 7-week-long online discussions. Using quantitative content analysis peer moderators’ interventions were analysed based on Smet, Keer, Wever, and Valcke’s (2010) scheme. The descriptive results show information exchange and knowledge construction supports were of continuous importance. Finally, a cluster analysis identified three distinct patterns of e-moderating behaviour: low-level moderators, mid-level moderators, and high-level moderators. The clusters differed in types of e-moderating support as well as their patterns of participation. High-level moderators dominated knowledge construction support and showed high level of online participation. Mid-level moderators dominated information exchange support and exhibited a moderate level of participation. Socialisation support and low level of participation were characteristics of low-level moderators. We further examined how these approaches were related to peer moderators’ perceptions of online discussions and academic performance. The results indicate that high-level moderators scored highest on all aspects of perceptions of online discussions and outperformed peer moderators in the other clusters with regard to academic performance

Social annotation tools in higher education: a preliminary systematic review

This review discusses the evidences in using SA tools in higher education settings. Using a detailed inclusion/exclusion procedure, 71 studies were included. A large number of studies were centred on system design issues and the evaluation of designed tools within education and computer technology classes, with blended learning modality among undergraduates. Findings suggested there was a gradual increase in the frequency of SA-based publications, with Science Direct, Taylor & Francis, and IEEE as the three databases with the most SA publication experiences. Findings were mostly derived from quasi-experiments. Of the four major topics recognised, 'system design and implementation issues' was categorised as the first topic, followed by 'the effectiveness of SA tools on process-oriented measures', 'the effectiveness of SA tools on outcome-oriented measures', and 'the improvement of SA tools and learning design'. Process-oriented and outcome-oriented measures dominating the studies were quantity and quality of annotations and reading performance, respectively

Students’ perceptions of online discussions, participation and e-moderation behaviours in peer-moderated asynchronous online discussions

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between students’ perceptions of online discussions, participation and e-moderation behaviours in peer-moderated asynchronous online discussions. Using survey data, the learning system’s activity log and discussion transcripts, the authors analysed how 84 learners’ perceptions of online discussions influenced their participation and e-moderation behaviours. The results showed that Cognitive and Skill II (critical thinking skills) perceptual aspects significantly influenced the quantity posting and participation patterns. Meanwhile, Skill I (reading and writing skills) and Efficacy were critical factors that influenced quantity non-posting participation. It was also found that the perceptual aspects significantly influenced learners’ e-moderation behaviours to the extent that Affection and Efficacy were critical factors that influenced lower-level e-moderation supports, while Cognition, Affection and Skill II were critical factors that influenced higher-level e-moderation supports. All e-moderation supports were found to be correlated with peers’ quantity posting and participation patterns, except for Access and motivation support

Global leadership in a university setting

What is global leadership? How can we develop global leadership for a university? This study was conducted using the qualitative approach through in-depth interviews of eight selected top leaders in a selected university. Based on the in-depth interviews, the findings discussed are as follows; Global leadership is related to diversity. Global leaders need to be developed with additional competencies to lead a university and to be able to compete worldwide. Global leadership has to operate in diverse situations. This means that a global leader has to understand different cultures, different ideas and different beliefs. So a global leader has to understand leading in diversity, which requires a different set of competencies. These include attitudes, skills and knowledge. This study is significant because it fills a gap in current knowledge regarding the experience that leaders perceived to be important in understanding and developing global leadership

Analyzing the social networks of high- and low-performing students in online discussion forums

An ego network is an individual’s social netwrk relationships with core members. In this study, the ego network parameters in online discussion spaces of high- and low-performing students were compared. The extent to which students’ ego networks changed over the course were also analyzed. Participation in 7 weeks of online discussions were analyzed for 12 high-performing students and 9 low-performing students. Results suggested that ego networks’ compositions of high- and low-performing students were significantly different. Particularly, high-performing students had denser ego networks and tended to exhibit a higher level of centralities than low-performing students. Results of network visualization indicated that high-performing students increased and kept their networks stable over the course in comparison to low-performing students, who had fragmented networks. Several networks’ change mechanisms for high- and low-performing groups are also identified and discussed

Leaf spot on lettuce (Lactuca sativa) caused by Stemphylium solani, a new disease in Malaysia.

In June 2011, lettuce (Lactuca sativa) plants cultivated in major lettuce growing areas in Malaysia, including the Pahang and Johor states, had extensive leaf spots. In severe cases, disease incidence was recorded to be more than 80%. Symptoms on 50 plants were initially water-soaked spots (1-2 mm in diameter) on leaves, which then became circular spots spreading over much of the leaves. Main lettuce growing areas infected by the pathogen in the aforementioned states were investigated and the pathogen was isolated onto potato dextrose agar. Fourteen isolates were identified as Stemphylium solani based on morphological criteria. To confirm morphological characterization, the DNA of the fungus was extracted from mycelium and PCR was conducted using universal primers ITS5 (5′-GGAAGTAAAAGTCGTAACAAGG-3′) and ITS4 (5′-TCCTCCGCTTATTGATATGC-3′), which amplified the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of rDNA. The sequencing result was subjected to BLAST analysis, revealing a 99% similarity to other published sequences in the GenBank database (GenBank accession nos. AF203451 and HQ840713). This is thought to be the first report of Stemphylium solani on lettuce in Malaysia

An outbreak of leaf spot caused by Stemphylium solani on eggplant in Malaysia.

In 2011, a severe gray leaf spot was observed on aubergine (Solanum melongena) in major aubergine growing areas in Malaysia, including the Pahang, Johor and Selangor states. Disease incidence was >70% in severely infected areas of approximately 150 ha of aubergine greenhouses and fields examined. Symptoms initially appeared as small (1-5 mm in diameter), brownish-black specks with concentric circles on the lower leaves. The specks then coalesced and developed into greyish-brown, necrotic lesions, which also appeared on the upper leaves. Eventually, the leaves senesced and were shed. Fungal colonies were greyish green to light brown, and produced a yellow pigment. Single, muriform, brown, oblong conidia formed at the terminal end of each conidiophore. The conidiophores were tan to light brown and ≤220 µm long. Based on these morphological criteria, 25 isolates of the fungus were identified as Stemphylium solani. Further confirmation of the identification was obtained by molecular characterization. A BLAST search in the NCBI database revealed that the sequence was 99% identical with published ITS sequences for two isolates of Stemphylium solani (Accession Nos. AF203451 and HQ840713). This is thought to be the first report of Stemphylium solani on aubergine in Malaysia

Assessing the effectiveness of role assignment on improving student's asynchronous online discussion participation

Taking into account prior research suggesting a lack of student participation in online discussions, this study examines the influence of peer moderator (PM) role assignment on students' participation and that of their peers' participation in online discussions. Eighty-four participants operated in a moderator role, reciprocally. Moreover, the study examines the differences in the level of e-moderation supports enacted by PMs of high-and low-density online discussions. Online participation was assessed using log files of seven-week discussions and social network analysis techniques. Quantitative content analysis was applied with online interaction transcripts of PMs for two groups of online discussions. The results indicated that students in the PM role reached significantly higher level of participation quantity and patterns and their non-posting participation significantly influenced all indicators of group participation. Further, high-and low-density online discussions differed significantly with regards to frequency of PMs' e-moderation supports

Exploring the behavioural patterns of knowledge dimensions and cognitive processes in peer moderated asynchronous online discussions

Peer moderation has been used as a beneficial strategy in asynchronous online discussions to assist student learning performance. However, most studies in peer-moderated asynchronous online discussions (PMAOD) have focused only on learning effectiveness and perceptions of students rather than on students’ knowledge dimensions and cognitive processing patterns. This study combined quantitative content analysis (QCA) and lag sequential analysis (LSA) to explore student knowledge dimensions and cognitive processing patterns in PMAOD. The participants were 84 students in an undergraduate blended course from University Putra Malaysia (UPM), Malaysia. The Revised Bloom Taxonomy (RBT) was used as the codification scheme to code the discussion transcripts of participants assigned the role of peer moderators in a reciprocal manner over seven weeks. Behavioural distributions and patterns of high- and low-quality discussion groups were compared. Results showed that students were primarily sharing knowledge dimensions and cognitive processes of metacognition and understanding, respectively. Additionally, it was found that there was a modest proportion of off-topic discussions. Nonetheless, by means of LSA, it was found that PMAOD exhibited a certain degree of self-sustainability in knowledge and cognitive process behaviours, with the exceptions of procedural knowledge and the cognitive process of applyingand, in terms of diversity in knowledge dimension and cognitive processing, high-quality discussion groups outperformed low-quality groups