Looking back at the Google spreadsheet, I didn’t change anything since my placements were pretty accurate based on the information that was available. However, after this week’s discussion about student-student interaction and online discussion as a learning tool, there are definitely areas in the actual curriculum and online discussions that I need to take a closer look at. My partner and I placed both of the schools that in the medium student-student activity mainly because both websites emphasized their students maintain close contact with other students within the same online course (discussion, chatting, blogging) to become part of a virtual learning community. Other than online discussions among fellow students, students also have time to get involved with other students in extracurricular activities including sports, church, work, or volunteering.
I “assumed” the student-student interaction took place because there were many discussions stated on the websites, but I don’t know how effective those discussions were. From this week’s discussion, I learned how online discussions can be meaningful if there is a controlled discussion where learners can follow topics that is being discussed facilitated by the instructor. At the same time, facilitators will set clear expectations and goals to the discussion so students will respond to each other with clear reflection on each topic. But without actually participating in the discussion, it's hard to judge whether the discussions were effective or not.
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