Asynchronous Online Discussions (AOD) and the Transfer of Offline power to the cyberspace

Advances in technology have created a safe environment where learners can remain anonymous yet interact with the other participants in online forums. Online asynchronous discussion boards are predominantly ubiquitous tools in distance education. As they become prevalent in teaching and learning, discovering and unfolding different aspects that contribute to shaping a quality discussion seems to be imperative. In this inquiry, I focused on ESOL pre-service teachers’ perception of power while participating in online discussions to explore factors that may contribute to transferring online power and agency to the cyberspace. To that end, I collected the data through an online survey, student interviews, and by recording online asynchronous discussion transcripts. I turned to Foucault’s notion of “power”, Spivak’s notion of “impossible no”, and “center and margin” as my theoretical lenses to analyze the data. Constant comparative analysis of the data indicated online power dynamics is a labyrinth of active players of both online and offline worlds. My discoveries centered on the components of the Community of Inquiry (COI) model and the relationship among their subcategories. Noting the gap in the growing literature, I will make some recommendations and suggestions for the future research. This presentation will enhance the audience’s understanding of online engagement and power transfer. I will show examples of preservice teachers’ perceptions of power in asynchronous online discussions (AOD) and will demonstrate how and why offline power is transferred to the cyberspace. KEYWORDS: Agency, Asynchronous Online Discussion boards, poststructuralism, ESOL preservice teachers, Powe