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Using asynchronous discussions to enhance student participation in CS courses

Published: 23 February 2005 Publication History

Abstract

As Computer Science (CS) educators, we are involved in teaching a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses such as database management systems, networking, software development and web development courses. In addition to the traditional classroom environment, we use online and blended teaching methods to enhance student participation and improve the achievement of learning objectives. Typical online supplements to classroom instruction include posting homework, links to external resources, lecture notes and exams online. Asynchronous discussions and synchronous chat sessions provide additional forums outside the classroom for strengthening interaction and enriching the learning experience for students. This paper focuses on how asynchronous discussions can be used to enhance student participation in CS courses; increased participation leads to learning effectiveness, rich involvement with the course content, and student satisfaction.

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          cover image ACM SIGCSE Bulletin
          ACM SIGCSE Bulletin  Volume 37, Issue 1
          2005
          562 pages
          ISSN:0097-8418
          DOI:10.1145/1047124
          Issue’s Table of Contents
          • cover image ACM Conferences
            SIGCSE '05: Proceedings of the 36th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
            February 2005
            610 pages
            ISBN:1581139977
            DOI:10.1145/1047344
          Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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          Association for Computing Machinery

          New York, NY, United States

          Publication History

          Published: 23 February 2005
          Published in SIGCSE Volume 37, Issue 1

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          Author Tags

          1. asynchronous discussions
          2. classroom management
          3. computer science
          4. course related
          5. curriculum
          6. learning communities
          7. split deadlines
          8. student engagement
          9. student participation

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          • (2011)PeerSpace - An Online Collaborative Learning Environment for Computer Science StudentsProceedings of the 2011 IEEE 11th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies10.1109/ICALT.2011.129(409-411)Online publication date: 6-Jul-2011
          • (2010)Supersizing e-learning: What a CoI survey reveals about teaching presence in a large online classThe Internet and Higher Education10.1016/j.iheduc.2009.12.00113:1-2(45-51)Online publication date: Jan-2010
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