The Comparison between Asynchronous Online Discussion and Traditional Classroom Discussion in an Undergraduate Education Course

While there is agreement that participation in online asynchronous discussions can enhance student learning, it has also been identified that there is a need to study the impact of participation in online asynchronous discussions compared to traditional discussions on student course content knowledge. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of using asynchronous discussions in an online course compared to traditional classroom face-to-face discussions. There were 44 participants in the study who were enrolled in an undergraduate course for elementary and secondary education majors related to teaching children with disabilities in the regular classroom. Twenty-two participants were enrolled in the online section of the course that accessed the course through home computers. Twenty-two participants were enrolled in the traditional section of the course that met in a classroom at the university. The instructional program for both groups included the same required textbook, syllabus, and activities. Qualitative data were collected through transcribed course discussions and printed threaded discussions to measure the quality of discussions related to course content. Several similar themes emerged for both groups of students indicating that both groups had similar discussions related to the course content. The results of this study have direct implications for using asynchronous discussions in an online learning environment