Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Asynchronous Discussion and Communication Patterns in Online and Hybrid History Courses

Asynchronous online discussion has been shown to enhance communication between students and to elicit many cognitive indicators. Nevertheless, historians have often been reluctant to make use of such instructional technology. Students enrolled in a fully online world civilization course corroborated qualitative research findings regarding the cognitive indicators associated with asynchronous discussion. In contrast, students in face-to-face web-enhanced hybrid world civilization classes exhibited less dramatic cognitive indicators in asynchronous discussion, perhaps due to the greater maturity in terms of age and experience of the fully online students. Students in the hybrid class, however, did indicate that participation in online discussions enhanced their engagement in face-to-face in-class discussions. However, asynchronous discussions did not prompt the face-to-face students to achieve authentic dialog between students in the classroom, and neither group managed to transcend problems of inequitable participation in small groups. There remains a need for further research on how to transplant documented advantages of asynchronous discussion into the hybrid classroom.