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online discussions

Can Student Chat during Class Be a Good Thing?

The ubiquitous cell phone and laptop have made student chat a common part of live classes, much to the consternation of instructors. Not only does it distract the teacher, but studies prove the common-sense intuition that distractions undermine learning (Blasiman et al., 2018). But a

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Engaging Students in Discussion through Hypothes.is

Social annotation tools allow instructors to post a reading to a website and then have students tag it with comments. These provide many benefits for students and instructors. One, they can demonstrate to the instructor that students are reading an article, especially if the

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A More Authentic Online Discussion

Discussion forums have brought both promise and disappointment to online educators. They promise to allow all students to lend their voice to a discussion without worry of being interrupted or slowing down the class. But they often degenerate into places where students repeat one

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Try Volley for Video Discussions

The learning management system (LMS) transformed class discussion by introducing an asynchronous forum that allows each student to participate without the time limit of a live class. But it has become a bit long in the tooth as apps have made video many students’

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Connecting with Online Students: What Works Best?

Decades of research show the value of instructor presence and student engagement for online learners. Yet many instructors wonder how well their efforts to foster engagement really work, leading some to question the value of discussion and other types of interactions.

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