The virtual classroom: learning without limits via computer networks
The virtual classroom: learning without limits via computer networks
Alone but Together: Adult Distance Study through Computer Conferencing
Alone but Together: Adult Distance Study through Computer Conferencing
Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom: Realities of Online Teaching
Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom: Realities of Online Teaching
What they want and what they get: a study of light-weight technologies for online communities
Proceedings of the Latin American conference on Human-computer interaction
Electronic learning communities: strategies for establishment and management
Proceedings of the 9th annual SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education
When to jump in: The role of the instructor in online discussion forums
Computers & Education
Three short cases for use in online introduction to computer information systems courses
ACM SIGITE Newsletter
With regard to respect: a framework for governance of educational virtual communities
International Journal of Web Based Communities
Interpersonal perception in bulletin board systems among Chinese Internet users
Computers in Human Behavior
What is online learner participation? A literature review
Computers & Education
A theory of online learning as online participation
Computers & Education
Cousins Virtual Jane and Virtual Joe, extraordinary virtual helpers
Computers & Education
The professor on your PC: a virtual CS1 course
ITiCSE '09 Proceedings of the 14th annual ACM SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education
Understanding Students' Online Forum Usage
Proceedings of the 2005 conference on Towards Sustainable and Scalable Educational Innovations Informed by the Learning Sciences: Sharing Good Practices of Research, Experimentation and Innovation
How does students' motivation relate to peer-moderated online interactions?
CSCL'09 Proceedings of the 9th international conference on Computer supported collaborative learning - Volume 1
Procrastination, participation, and performance in online learning environments
Computers & Education
Computers in Human Behavior
Student discussion forums: what is in it for them?
Computer Science Education Research Conference
Do lurking learners contribute less?: a knowledge co-construction perspective
Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Communities and Technologies
Integrating video components in CS1
Proceedings of the 43rd ACM technical symposium on Computer Science Education
Journal of Computer Assisted Learning
Computers in Human Behavior
Incentivizing participation in online forums for education
Proceedings of the fourteenth ACM conference on Electronic commerce
Proceedings of the 6th Balkan Conference in Informatics
Proceedings of the first ACM conference on Learning @ scale conference
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When facilitating asynchronous discussion forums, should online instructors be encouraged to take a prominent 'sage on the stage' role, a more constructivist 'guide on the side' role, or an ultra low profile as 'the ghost in the wings'? There is no shortage of anecdotal advice on how to conduct discussion forums in online education, but there appears to be very little research available so far to back that advice up. In this study of an online astronomy program with approximately 200 participants, we investigated the way that the rate at which instructors post and how often those instructors initiate discussions correlate with several variables--student posting rates, lengths of discussion threads, and student survey responses concerning their educational experience. We found that the ways in which instructors post to forums can influence students' forum discussions and perceptions, but not always in expected ways. On average, frequent posting by instructors did not lead to more student postings, and the more the instructors posted, the shorter were the lengths of the discussions overall. On the other hand, while most students rated their educational experience highly, instructors who posted frequently were judged on average to be more enthusiastic and expert than those who did not. Clearly the number of student postings and the rate at which instructors participate are not simple indicators of the quality of forum discussions. We need to find more subtle measures of the effectiveness of asynchronous discussion forums for learning and teaching.