A preliminary study of disturbing silence in asynchronous discussion forums

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. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.