Instructor Moderation and Student Engagement in Synchronous Computer Conferencing: A Mixed Methods Study

Current learning theories emphasize the value of instructor-led engaged collaborative dialogue for student engagement in learning. This research study attempts to develop a deeper understanding of the relationship between teacher moderating practices and student engagement in a synchronous environment through the analysis of 44 transcripts from over 11 weeks of classroom discussion in a moderated synchronous online course. The study used a mixed method design where the results of the quantitative analysis were used to select cases for further qualitative analysis. The quantitative analysis revealed that student intellectual engagement was a function of both students ’ participation and the number and quality of teacher postings. The qualitative analysis of online discourse allowed the identification of key themes and practices for effective online moderating. It is important to note that if certain moderating behaviors or practices correspond to or promote different forms of student intellectual engagement online, there will be vast practical and theoretical implications. The results of this study can link both the processes as well as the learning outcomes of computer conferencing to studen