Exploring Online Discussion Forums in a Research Seminar Course: A Study on Cognitive and Teaching Presence

• In Event: Laying the Groundwork for Meaningful Interactions in Online Learning Environments

Abstract

Within the last couple of years, there has been a need to shift in-person classes to online platforms including traditional face-to-face seminars. This study examines an online discussion forum in a low-stakes research seminar course for a graduate program; and the effect of teaching presence on students’ higher-order thinking (cognitive presence). Discussion Forum transcript data was collected from the Ed Discussion forum and manually coded based on the Community of Inquiry framework to explore how teaching presence impacts the level of cognitive presence. The analysis revealed that using scaffolding-based teaching presence technique increases the cognitive presence of students and is statistically significant. The significance of these results was explored and future directions are stated for promoting discussion in virtual/online research seminars.

Authors

• Saurabh Chatterjee, Georgia Institute of Technology
  Presenting Author

• David Joyner, Georgia Institute of Technology
  Non-Presenting Author