Online Discussion in Secondary and Higher Education

Dr. Yu-mei Wang has been a faculty member in the School of Education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) since 2002, where she teaches discussion-based online courses for both undergraduate and graduate students. She first became involved in online technology in the early 1990's and, fascinated by its educational potential, has been particularly interested in how to build and nurture a dynamic online discourse community to ensure quality online learning. Through her research, she is convinced that human connections across distance is the key to fulfilling the promise of online technology and her commitment to this goal is reflected in her teaching practices. Dr. Wang has published widely in the professional literature and presented at international and national conferences.  Prior to her appointment at UAB, she taught educational technology courses and served as the director of the computer lab in the School of Education at the University of Guam.

• Chapter 1: Do Students Learn through Online Discussion?.- Chapter 2: Design to Engage Students.- Chapter 3: Lay Down Groundwork: Forming, Accessing, and Inducting.- Chapter 4: Commonality.- Chapter 5: Interdependence.- Chapter 6: Rules.- Chapter 7: Instructor as Facilitator.- Chapter 8: Questioning to Facilitate.- Chapter 9: Assessing Online Discussion: A Holistic Approach.