Online Discussions in Blended Learning: Strategies for Effective Integration

The Internet is increasingly being used in higher education in several countries in the last decade, resulting in online, blended, and web-enhanced course offerings for students. Instructors who experiment with computer-mediated communication tools like discussion forums, chat rooms, and blogs to facilitate course discussions struggle to combine both online and classroom discussions effectively. This book presents two models for the integration of online discussions into the classroom to enhance student learning. Based on qualitative research in two university courses that used Blackboard, several benefits of these two models for instructors and students with different teaching and learning styles are discussed in this book. It also provides insight into the role of instructional design, instructor participation, and instructor feedback in web-enhanced instruction. This book contains strategies for effectively using and facilitating asynchronous online discussions that will be of special interest to teachers, educators, practitioners, trainers, educational technologists, and curriculum designers seeking to design and implement blended instruction.

Dr. Swapna Kumar. EdD in Curriculum and Teaching from Boston University. Instructor of Educational Media and Technology at Boston University, USA. Teaching and research interests: Blended and Online Learning; Virtual learning communities; Web 2.0 applications in higher education; Design and measurement of workplace learning.