Linguistic Discourse Variables as Indicators of Reflective Online Interaction in

The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of traditionally spoken linguistic analysis approaches for understanding the nature and outcomes of online interaction. The study took place with twenty-eight elementary school teachers in ten suburban Chicago schools involved in a technology-supported, problem-based learning curriculum development effort. The asynchronous and face-to-face communications of participants were monitored to test the utility of linguistic discourse variables for understanding interaction. The evi-dence showed that similar sense-making and interaction strategies are used in both face-to-face and online dialogue but that the strategies were significantly more prevalent in the face-to-face than online dia-logue. When critical reflection was studied as an outcome of both forms of dialogue, asynchronous electronic communication was sig-nificantly more reflective than face-to-face discourse. Distance learning researchers and instructors continue to have a fascination with online interaction. This interest evolves from a desire among online instructors to have learners take part in high quality, online interactions (Slagter van Tryon and Bishop 2005). Because the literature on online learning shows that the quality of dialogue and the development of the learner depend heavily on facilitation, instructors work tirelessly to pro-mote worthwhile exchanges between online learning participants (Keeley 2004; Slocum, Towns, and Zielinski 2004; Taylor 2005). Ultimately, the extent to which learners find value in their online learning experience and are satisfied with the results rests on the quality of those interaction