IGI Global Online Symposium Series Producing Increased Interaction and Critical Thinking in the College Classroom: In Search of Authentic Online Discussion    IGI Global Online Symposium Series       Producing Increased Interaction and Critical Thinking in the College Classroom: In Search of Authentic Online Discussion  IGI Global Online Symposium Series Hosted by: Dr. Leonard Shedletsky, Professor of Communication at the University of Southern Maine, USA Date: Monday, April 18, 2011 Time: 4:10 pm (EST)  Lecture notes available at: http://media.usm.maine.edu/~lenny/igi_symposium.docx

POLL QUESTIONS QUESTION 1   This question is for teachers of online courses: Have you been satisfied with discussion in your online classes? A. YES B. NO C. Once in a while D. RARELY

QUESTION 2 This question is for teachers of online courses:   Have your online students responded to one another in a meaningful way? A. No B. Yes C. Once in a while D. Rarely

QUESTION 3 This question is for students of online courses: 3. Have your online course discussions been important to your learning or have you found them generally to be busy work? They have been important to my learning Busy work A mix, close to 50/50 It’s just a chore to be done

QUESTION 4 For both teachers and students:   4. Do you believe there is something the teacher can do to facilitate online discussions so that the discussions are authentic, interactive and comprised of high quality, text-related posts? A. Yes B. No

Besides how to discuss, we need to decide why to discuss?

A CLAIM The amount and the quality of online discussion is quite poor.

VIDEO: STRUGGLING TO DISCUSS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abnRXH1IBCg&feature=player_embedded - at=13 http://media.usm.maine.edu/~lenny/get_discuss.mov