Asynchronous Media-based Discussion to Promote Scholarly Engagement

Abstract

  E-learning has been widely adopted in higher education, where both undergraduate and graduate courses are routinely offered in fully online or hybrid online formats. However, it is challenging to foster a high level of scholarly interaction and engagement in asynchronous online courses. This is a particular concern in graduate education, where knowledge transfer alone does not support development of important critical thinking and scholarly communication skills or the consideration of student experience and perspective necessary for engaged pedagogy. This is sometimes difficult to achieve using asynchronous, text-based online discussions. The purpose of this presentation is to describe our experience of implementing media-based discussion in an online course to promote scholarly engagement and to demonstrate the use of VoiceThread, proprietary software for implementing media-based discussion. Developments in e-learning technology now support media-based discussion. Using this technology, asynchronous online discussion can now be tied directly to images, documents, or video generating a more naturally engaging multimedia experience. Students and faculty can engage in discussion tied to these pieces of media using video, audio, or text. In effect, the approach more closely mimics face-to-face interaction than text-based approaches. The interaction pattern closely resembles the interaction pattern found in social media. Use of this technology in higher education is emerging. However, information about advantages, disadvantages, best practices, and strategies for effective use is limited. In 2014, we piloted the use of threaded video discussion in an interdisciplinary graduate-level informatics course in order to strengthen scholarly engagement. The class consisted of twenty-four graduate students with prior degrees in diverse fields, two teaching assistants, and two faculty instructors. In this hybrid online course, over 80% of the content is delivered online. The intent of the pilot was to increase scholarly engagement and a sense of connectedness among students. We encountered some challenges in using VoiceThread software for media-based discussion in this class, including rights management over posted material, lack of availability on android mobile devices, and the need to upload all media to the VoiceThread server (and corresponding inability to link to media hosted in other locations). In this pilot project, media-based discussion was an effective tool for democratizing the classroom. Discussions were exceptionally rich. Students appeared to take more time preparing their contributions and often included references and related material. However, both faculty and students noted the high time commitment required. Student participation tended to increase in volume but decrease in quality during the few days before each discussion deadline, similar to the pattern we’ve noted with text-based discussion. The use of video for discussion was uncomfortable for some students and members of the teaching team. Overall, media- based discussion appeared to be effective in promoting scholarly engagement and connectedness in this graduate-level interdisciplinary online course. However, there are important considerations for its effective use. In informatics, individuals with diverse expertise work together and with technology to improve patient health, and informatics is often more about people than technology. This e-learning approach helps integrate these socio-technical aspects of informatics into the classroom.