Current Practices in Online Learning

Abstract

Although questions are important in all learning settings, they are especially important in the online classroom. Certain practices for questioning used within the traditional classroom do not apply to the online education environment. Strategies such as wait time, eye contact, and tone are not relevant. Lack of voice inflection and sole reliance on text-based communication can lead to misunderstandings. Questions posed in the online setting can be more easily misunderstood than those posed in the classroom. Questions can also help online students engage with others. When an instructor poses a specific question to a student, or student group, the students can assume that the instructor is truly interested in what they think, feel, and know. Questions can also be used to create an online dialog between students and instructors, thus increasing the dynamics of the online classroom. The use of questions may even serve as a form of motivation for students and help the student to feel more intimately involved in the online classroom. Classroom questioning can have similar benefits, with the added ease and advantage of nonverbal communication. The purpose of this work was to review the literature to identify the best practice for facilitating online discussions