Cunnin, Betty; Macpherson, Alice; Matteoni, James Alan

Y

2368-4526

Learner Engagement, Critical Thinking, Asynchronous Communication, Computer Mediated Communication, College Students, Horticulture, Thinking Skills, Course Content, Interpersonal Relationship, Instructional Design, Transformative Learning, Technology Uses in Education, Student Participation, Group Discussion, Discussion (Teaching Technique)

Educators know that to engage learners in the enterprise of critical thinking, learner's need to care enough to pay attention, and feel safe enough to take intellectual risks. When interacting asynchronously in online forums, it can become even more challenging to create a space that encourages reflective, integrative, and higher order thinking. In this paper, we present four strategies we found effective to connect university horticulture students to the course content and to each other in online forums. By building relationships to foster a social presence, making certain the topics for discussion are temporal and connected to students lives, have meaning both in content and course value, and by providing students some choice about what conservations they engage in, instructors can support students to create meaningful dialogical conversations that surpass the shallow fact finding exchanges that online learner's habitually engage in.

As Provided

Higher Education; Postsecondary Education

2015

EJ1058724