Kay Kyeong-Ju Seo

Creating a community of inquiry in online environments: An exploratory study on the effect of a protocol on interactions within asynchronous discussions

The purpose of our research was to examine the influence of an online protocol on asynchronous discussions. A mixed-methods study compared two online graduate classes: one that used a protocol and one that did not use a protocol for the same discussion about a complex reading. Analysis of the data revealed that the online protocol more evenly distributed the presence of cognitive, social, and teaching elements necessary to create and sustain an online community of inquiry. Use of the protocol also promoted more shared group cognition and more student ownership of the discussion and empowered students to facilitate themselves, helping to reduce the instructor workload. These findings may enable educators to provide more dynamic interaction and richer learning experiences in asynchronous online environments.

Inspiring equal contribution and opportunity in a 3d multi-user virtual environment: Bringing together men gamers and women non-gamers in Second Life ®</sup?

A 3D multi-user virtual environment holds promise to support and enhance student online learning communities due to its ability to promote global synchronous interaction and collaboration, rich multisensory experience and expression, and elaborate design capabilities. Second Life^(R), a multi-user virtual environment intended for adult users 18 and older, is the most cited in educational literature, so it is important to explore how college-aged students are using it to form online learning communities. Previous research suggests that there is unbalanced participation between traditional college-aged men and women with regards to 3D multi-user video games, which closely resemble Second Life^(R). In this research study, we investigated in what manner women and men college students projected their virtual identities and engaged in interaction in Second Life^(R), and how this influenced their learning of course content. Analysis of multiple data sources revealed that conceptions of identity, beliefs of the nature of the virtual world, and technical skill were primary factors which affected group cohesion and learning within the community. Results from this study can provide insight into the class activities that can support all learners in accessing and contributing to the multi-user virtual environment learning community.

Empowering Learning Communities With Social Media

The contents of this issue address the theme of “Empowering Learning Communities With Social Media.” Recently the rapid increase in popularity and usage of social media (such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter, virtual worlds, and wikis) is dramatically transforming the landscape of distance education, offering new pedagogical and professional development opportunities online. Equipped with highly accessible communication mechanisms, social media can expedite the process of integrating users into a learning community. The learning process can be extended beyond the classroom, and collaboration can be fostered in a more effective, efficient manner. Especially, this change is transforming learners into content creators by empowering them to generate, customize, and share information freely within online networks of individuals and groups. They can project stronger, more coherent online presences and participate in the knowledgebuilding process more actively. This transformative shift opens up new opportunities to support collaborative learning in the online context as it allows for diverse means to encourage user interaction and effective ways to manage collective knowledge. As the use of social media rapidly expands into the education sector and holds promise to better facilitate distance education, it is important to explore innovative ways to use social media to support learners and elicit group cohesion and sense of connection to a community. This theme issue aims at providing in-depth insight into the integration of the technologies in the social learning process, focusing on how to maximize their educational benefits and address any potential issues. The first three articles in this issue discuss the use of social media to enhance student learning. The first article, titled “Examining Patterns of Participation and Meaning Making in Student Blogs: A Case Study in Higher Education,” reviews the use of blogs in a graduate online course and explores their effectiveness as a tool to support student interaction and meaning making. The second article, titled “Examining the Use of Facebook and Twitter as an Additional Social Space in a MOOC,” discusses in what way the social media can enrich the students’ learning experience and enhance their sense of connection in a massive open online course. The third article, “Designing a Virtual-Reality-Based, Gamelike Math Learning Environment,” introduces a learning environment designed to teach math and examines its effectiveness in supporting learner engagement and interaction. Whereas these three articles address the benefits of blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and a virtual world for student learning, the next two articles shift the focus to provide a balanced view of social media. The fourth article, “An Insight Into Student Perceptions of Cyberbullying,” presents a destructive side effect of social media and raises awareness of its potential negative influence on an online learning community. The last article, “Beyond the Four Walls of My Building: A Case Study of #Edchat as a Community of Practice,” explores the use of Twitter for teachers’ professional development, considering social media not just as a learning tool for students but also as a medium for teachers’ community of practice. Hopefully this theme issue, which addresses important trends and issues associated with social media, can provide educators and researchers with a framework for decision making so they can fully explore the possible benefits of using social media in education, effectively resolve potential problems that may arise in the process of utilizing the technologies, and design a powerful online learning community.

Using the Constructivist Tridimensional Design Model for Online Continuing Education for Health Care Clinical Faculty.

This article presents a new paradigm for continuing education of Clinical Instructors (CIs): the Constructivist Tridimensional (CTD) model for the design of an online curriculum. Based on problem-based learning, self-regulated learning, and adult learning theory, the CTD model was designed to facilitate interactive, collaborative, and authentic learning. The authors conducted experimental research with twenty-one physical therapy (PT) CIs to explore how the participants perceived the usefulness of the online curriculum structured around the CTD model in improving their knowledge in student mentoring. The CTD-inspired module was effective in that the participants perceived an improvement in the quality of their mentoring skills and they were able to maintain best practices.

An Insight Into Student Perceptions of Cyberbullying

ABSTRACT Cyberbullying is a major public concern due to its physical, emotional, and psychological impact affecting both victims and perpetrators. This study analyzed existing survey results from seventh- and eighth-grade students at a school in the midwestern United States to investigate possible similarities and differences in perceptions of cyberbullying between students who had been affected by bullying and those who had not. Seventy-two percent of the students indicated they had been affected by cyberbullying at least once and 54% had been affected more than once. Analysis of response patterns within groups of students identified similarities and differences in trends between affected and nonaffected students as well as across genders.

Fostering a Safe Online Culture with Cyberbullying Awareness and Prevention

The worldwide expansion of blogs, Twitter®, wikis, and virtual worlds is rapidly forming a new online culture where instant communication and virtual interaction are easily accessible at our fingertips. These powerful communication technologies are bringing global communities closer than we have ever imagined possible. While the technical affordances of these tools are holding promise to better support our diverse cultures and individual differences, the very same features can also bring in a major negative – cyberbullying. Internet aggression is more detrimental than traditional face-to-face bullying because it is often done anonymously behind computer screens. This makes human rights and equal participation more easily suppressed or violated in the cyberspace. This article focuses on raising awareness about the serious consequences of cyberbullying and suggesting innovative prevention actions, thus contributing to building a safe online culture.

Designing and facilitating learning communities in immersive virtual environments

Immersive virtual environments (IVEs) hold a lot of promise to support and enhance student online learning communities, due to their ability to deliver on several key web 2.0 trends: global synchronous interaction and collaboration, rich multi-sensory experience and expression, elaborate design capabilities, etc. Although these features afford educational experiences that other environments cannot, great care must be taken with regards to the design and development of learning communities. In this paper, we propose five strategies to help teachers to create and sustain a fruitful learning community in IVEs. These strategies are grounded in the following three resources: 1) research data; 2) a professional interview; 3) a review of empirical literature. We use these three diverse resources to provide a well-rounded view of educator and student perspectives and needs. Based on the findings, design and development applications are offered.