ABSTRACT
Introduction: Systems thinking is one of the most important thinking skills for medical students. Most of the studies focused on designing technological-rich learning environments which usually take several weeks or months to implement. However, the occurring of COVID-19 health crisis does not allow extensive period of time to implement classroom interventions. How to support students' systems thinking in fully online environments remains an issue. This study examines if encouraging students initiating questions on asynchronous discussion forum supports their systems thinking development. Methods: Twenty-two junior students participated in this study. We compared if and how students developed systems thinking when they were encouraged asking questions in asynchronous discussion forums in one unit with another unit in which traditional method was used. Multiple analytical methods were applied in this study, including, social network analysis, epistemic network analysis, inferential statistical analysis and qualitative analysis. Results: Quantitative results showed that all students improved systems thinking compared with traditional teaching unit among which leader students improved most. Further analysis on students' discussion posts suggested leader students asked high systems thinking level questions and provided high level responses. Epistemic network analysis unpacked how leader, regular and peripheral students engaged in initiating questions and providing responses differently. Discussion: This study provides methodological and practical contributions. Methodologically, this study extends prior methods of applying network analysis beyond its original preservice teacher training contexts; practically, this study provides strategies to practitioners to support students' asynchronous forum discussions.
ABSTRACT
PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the following questions: What are the types of discussion prompts in a fully online graduate course? What are the key characteristics of students’ discussion initial posts and replies in a fully online graduate course? In what ways, if any, do discussion prompts influence the types of initial posts and replies in discussion threads?Design/methodology/approachThis study adopted a qualitative approach to explore the dynamics of students’ knowledge construction through using asynchronous discussion boards. A total of 20 discussion prompts and 115 discussion threads from nine archival discussion boards in a fully online library science course were collected and analyzed.FindingsThe findings identified open-ended, explanatory and reflective prompts in discussion boards. Students engaged in simply stating, paraphrasing, elaborating, extending, reflecting, socializing and sharing emotions in discussion posts. These findings highlighted the interconnectedness of reflection and socio-emotional interactions in a community of inquiry and pointed out their important roles to support richer and deeper online discussions. The study further observed linkages between the types of discussion prompts and the types of discussion posts.Originality/valueThis study addressed an urgent need to understand the use of online discussion boards in an emergency remote teaching condition in a pandemic. The findings of this study offered educators insights into evidence-based design recommendations for prompts to support students’ knowledge construction and deep learning through using discussion boards.