Pedagogy in cyberspace: The dynamics of online discussion

This article elaborates a model for understanding pedagogy in online educational forums. The model identifies four key components. Intellectual engagement de-scribes the foreground cognitive processes of collaborative learning. Communica-tion processes operating in the background accumulate an ever richer store of shared understandings that enable the forward movement of the conversation. The collaborative process requires a moderator to coordinate communication and learning in a group. The moderator in online education is usually a teacher who shares knowledge in the process of leading discussion. Finally, a successful discus-sion generates intrinsic motivations to participate, which keep the discussion going. This framework is designed to bring out the complexity of online discussion and to provide a basis for advising teachers and evaluating applications and software. Résumé Cet article élabore un modèle pour comprendre la pédagogie associée aux forum