Open Access Kent State (OAKS)

Online discussion is a commonly used means to promote student understanding of a topic and to facilitate social interaction among students or between students and instructor; however, its effects on student learning in online learning environments have rarely been investigated. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of online discussion in student learning experiences measured with community of inquiry, learner time, satisfaction, and achievement. One instructor taught the same online course for three consecutive semesters using three different conditions. During one semester enrolled students engaged in no discussion, during another semester they engaged in discussion without instructor participation, and in the remaining semester they engaged in discussion with active instructor participation. No significant differences were found among conditions in cognitive presence and the instructor’s teaching presence, whereas significant difference was found in social presence among conditions. No significant differences among conditions were found time spent on Blackboard, course satisfaction, and student achievement. Implications for online teaching and learning as well as for designing an online course conclude the paper.

There are many instructional design theories to assist librarians in creating effective instructional modules for student learning. ADDIE is a generic instructional design model that has been in existence for more than 30 years and is known for its flexibility in application (Molenda, 2003). Using instructional design theories such as ADDIE helps to better serve students, librarians, and faculty because it adds efficiency and cohesion to the designing and learning process (Bell & Shank, 2007). In this article, the author writes about using the ADDIE model of instructional design to successfully incorporate new technologies into existing and new library instruction modules. The author outlines how the ADDIE model can be modified to fit specific technological needs of a library instruction program.

There are numerous benefits associated with integrating hypermedia applications into teaching and learning environments. However, simply adding a hypertextual component does not ensure increased success in teaching or learning. Various issues can transform hypermedia into a constraint rather than an enabler of learning. For instance, problems occur when users are new to either hypermedia environments or the topic of study in which the hypermedia is integrated. We argue that a web-based database can act as an intermediary in the integration of hypermedia applications into learning environments. In this paper, we describe the reasons for using a web-based database as well as stages of implementation. We conclude with two examples of projects that utilize databases in hypermedia learning environments as well as methods for the development of database-driven hypermedia environments.