DISCUSSION QUESTION DESIGN AND ADMINISTRATION

Barker (2001) notes that there are four essential components of online education: “1) the web based resources that are used to provide basic content, 2) an online support infrastructure (tutors and technical help), 3) communication strategies that underlie course-related online dialog and student discussions, 4) the various learning tasks undertaken by students during a given course. ” The third one of these is more of an art than a science and student satisfaction has been found to be highly correlated with interactions in the course room (Kirby, 1999; Mazzolini and Maddison, 2003). Lim (2004) discusses six issues that need to be considered for effective inquiries which address components 3 and 4 of the above. These are 1) seeking a balance between a system-generated guide and human facilitator, 2) visual representation of the inquiry process, 3) motivating learners with the right question, 4) engaging learners in various learning activities, 5) guiding the inquiry process with various scaffolds, and 6) maximizing learning by coordinating resources, tools and the community of inquiry. Issue #3 on Lim's list, “motivating learners with the right question, " is the focal point for this paper concerning the design and administration of discussion questions