Integrating Required Online Discussions Involving Higher Order Thinking into Distance Learning Class

1
Integrating Required Online Discussions Involving
Higher Order Thinking into Distance Learning
Classes

• Barbara Illowsky
• January 26, 2007

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The problem

• Online sections of most community college courses
  in California have lower retention and success
  rates than the corresponding rates for the
  face-to-face sections.

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The literature

• Interaction has long been considered one of the
  most essential parts of learning Dewey,
  Vygotsky
• Quite simply, the more students invest in
  learning activities, the more they learn Tinto
• Learner-centered interaction is an excellent way
  to enhance critical and higher order thinking in
  online discussions Bender, Berge Muilenburg

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The literature (cont.)
Interaction Learner-content
Interaction Learner- learner
Interaction Learner- instructor
Reduce Transactional Distance
Interaction Learner-interface
Success
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The question

• Do academic success and retention rates increase
  when distance learning community college students
  are required to participate in online discussion
  involving higher order thinking?

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Blooms Taxonomy

• Knowledge recall information
• Comprehension interpret information in ones own
  words
• Application use of knowledge or generalization
  in a new situation
• Analysis break down knowledge into parts and
  show relationships among parts
• Synthesis bring together parts of knowledge to
  form a whole and build relationships for new
  situations
• Evaluation make judgments on basis of given
  criteria

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Higher Order Thinking Skills

• Require the 3 4 highest levels of
• Blooms Taxonomy
• Evaluation highest
• Synthesis
• Analysis
• Application

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The experiment

• In fall 2006, faculty and students in the online
  Elementary Statistics courses at De Anza College
  and Evergreen Valley College participated in an
  experiment. Each class was randomly split into
  two sections, a control group and an experimental
  group. Students in the experimental group had
  required weekly discussions with questions
  involving higher level thinking skills. The
  required discussion postings were the only
  difference between the two sections at each
  college.

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Discussion Postings

• Demo EVC class
• http//www.coursecompass.com/ccindex.html

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Grading Rubric

• Faculty instructions to the student
• Hi. Part of your points for this course will be
  from your discussion postings. Each week, I will
  post a topic for each group. You are required to
  post a 100 word minimum posting by Thursday night
  and a 50 word minimum response to at least one
  member of your group by Sunday night. When you
  respond to a group mate, give suggestions for
  improvement and make corrections. Be polite. The
  purpose of these postings is to increase
  learning.

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Grading Rubric (cont.)

• Hints for writing
• Consider writing your posting in a word
  processing application (such as Word) before you
  submit it. That way, you can run the spell and
  grammar check. Then copy and paste your posting
  into the Discussion space.
• Go over Grading Rubric handout

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The results

• Inconclusive ?
• Possible reasons why
• Next steps
• Thank you!
• illowskybarbara_at_deanza.edu