Education 2.0 & 3.0

Faculty use asynchronous discussions to extend and enhance instructional practices in the online classroom. It is widely reported that online discussions play an integral role in facilitating students’ learning, as well as fostering dialogue, critical thinking, and reflective inquiry (Kayler & Weller, 2007; Morris, Finnegan, & Sz-Shyan, 2005). Despite faculty’s knowledge that discussion forums can serve as a useful learning tool, online discussions are not easy to establish and manage.

Although there are many documented advantages of learning online, some educators still question this innovative way of teaching because of technical obstacles, because they suspect or doubt its effectiveness, or because they are unfamiliar with the approach. Indeed, the teaching considerations for an online course, versus a traditional in-residence-based course, do change by necessity because of the different learning environments.

Making traditional course material digital, converting lectures to streaming video, and assigning tests or writing assignments online are not enough to convert the full classroom experience into avirtual one.

What is lacking in the virtual setting is the dynamic interchange among students and instructors. Although their concerns are valid, in-residence educators should find solace in learning that one of the most fundamental forms of teaching, the student-peer discussion facilitated by a knowledgeable instructor, remains as valid for mature-student distance learning today as it was for Socrates. This venerable method remains effective for online students for the same reasons it works in the classroom — because the discourse among students actually builds knowledge and keeps learning focused on their needs. Online, this Socratic method of teaching, also known as a “threaded discussion” or a “forum,” is an excellent distancelearning tool. All online instructors should consider using this method.

Too often, instructors get caught up in seeing forums as a quantitative measure of how much a student has learned, gauging understanding by replying with prompts that are, frankly, as boring or as tedious as some of the material students have been asked to read. 

These conversations between students have more depth and more personality because they are creating, building, having fun and interacting. They are not just replying to a prompt. They are using their imaginations. The process brings an energy and passion that engages them.