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A Preliminary Study of Disturbing Silence in Asynchronous Discussion Forums

  • Conference paper
Hybrid Learning (ICHL 2012)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 7411))

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Abstract

The silent moment in traditional classroom or virtual classroom is disturbing. When that happens, instructors know it is necessary to do something to engage their audience. The silence in asynchronous discussion forums is not quite evident. There might be no new posts while people are still lurking around. The difficulty is that the moderators do not have much information to tell how badly things are going. When they are aware of the situation, it is often too late to do anything helpful. Online asynchronous instruction is an important part of hybrid e-learning. The length of time for reflection is much longer for participants of asynchronous discussion forums compared to that of traditional classroom instruction. However, the lack of moderation strategies and control of interaction quality often hampers the confidence of online teachers in pursuit of critical instructional objectives. In this research, we try to model and record the interactivity in asynchronous forums with the model of interaction profiles. The quantitative data evolved from the model reveals the intensity of interaction and thus suggests facilitation strategies for moderators. Our goal is to improve the efficiency and quality of online asynchronous instruction.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Management & Information, National Open University, 172 Chung-Cheng Road, Lu Chow, 24702, New Taipei City, Taiwan, R.O.C.

    Cheng-Huang Yen

Authors
  1. Cheng-Huang Yen
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Open University of Hong Kong, 30 Good Shepherd Street, Ho Man Tin, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

    Simon K. S. Cheung

  2. Department of Computer Science, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

    Joseph Fong  & Lam-For Kwok  & 

  3. South China Normal University, 510631, Guangzhou, China

    Kedong Li

  4. Caritas Institute of Higher Education, 18 Chui Linf Road, Tseung Kwan O, New Territories, Hong Kong, China

    Reggie Kwan

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© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Yen, CH. (2012). A Preliminary Study of Disturbing Silence in Asynchronous Discussion Forums. In: Cheung, S.K.S., Fong, J., Kwok, LF., Li, K., Kwan, R. (eds) Hybrid Learning. ICHL 2012. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7411. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32018-7_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32018-7_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-32017-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-32018-7

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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