Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 202-223).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Toronto, 2004. / Adviser: Lynn Davie.

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Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Toronto, 2005.

Thesis (M.App.Sc.) - Carleton University, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p.94-97 ). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

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Despite the growth in the size and acceptance of distance education, there have been persistent criticisms of this form of education because it often fails to provide for interaction among students and between students and instructors. Without this, it is suggested, distance education can only be an inferior imitation of the best face-to-face education because learners are unable to clarify and challenge assumptions and to construct meaning through dialogue. Some critics believe distance education's inability to reproduce a critical dialogue among students and between students and instructor can be addressed through the use of two-way communication technologies such as text-based, asynchronous (i.e., not in real time) computer conferencing. Appropriately-designed computer conferencing, it is argued, will facilitate interaction among students and between the instructor and students thus making distance education more appropriate for the higher-level cognitive goals of college and university education. At the same time, using this' technology will retain the flexibility of time and place-independence that is characteristic of distance education. The literature on educational computer conferencing is replete with references to its potential to create a new paradigm of education characterized by interactive group knowledge-building and critical thinking, but there are few empirical studies that have substantiated this view. Little is known about how and why learners participate and what factors may affect their participation. Similarly there has been little empirical study of the quality of computer conferencing interaction. This case study of a university-level course delivered by computer conferencing was designed to address these issues. It was guided by two purposes: 1) to determine whether the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of participation in this online course were consistent with key aspects of the new paradigm of networked learning as articulated in the literature, that is, if students were actively participating, building on each others contributions and thinking critically about the discussion topics; and 2) to determine what factors affected student participation and critical thinking. The results of this study suggest that some of the claims about the potential of this technology to transform conventional and distance education may be overstated. The emergence of a dynamic and interactive educational process that facilitates critical thinking was shown to be contingent on a variety of factors. The results suggest, however, that with the appropriate course design, instructor interventions, content, and students, computer conferencing can be used for these purposes and should be given serious consideration by distance educators as a way of facilitating interaction and critical thinking in distance education. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

Many studies report information overload (IO) as one of the main problems students encounter in computer-mediated communication (CMC). To date, researchers have paid little attention to the problem of IO—more specifically, to its impact on students’ quality interaction—in educational CMC. In an attempt to fill that gap, the purposes of this study were as follows: (a) to understand the difficulties students encounter that contribute to their perceptions of IO in CMC, (b) to observe the impact of those difficulties on students’ learning in online discussions, and (c) to identify students’ strategies for avoiding or managing those difficulties in order to engage in quality learning. Interviews with students and computer conferencing transcripts were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Interviews with 10 graduate students near the beginning of the semester revealed that although students were exposed to the same amount of information in the same learning environments, different individuals experienced different degrees of IO. Varied learner characteristics caused some students to be more susceptible to IO than others. The difficulties students encountered that contributed to their perceptions of IO included connection problems, navigation difficulties, discomfort with online communication, numerous ongoing discussion messages and endless resources, difficulty in organizing learning, and problems understanding the assigned readings. Those difficulties tended not to affect students’ deep processing as observed in their discussion messages, but might influence students’ online interaction with others. Students engaging in quality learning in online discussions were interviewed near the end of the semester to investigate their learning strategies. The results indicated that students used a variety of strategies to deal with those difficulties. Those strategies were related to online class preparation, identifying relevant information, processing online information and printed materials, keeping learning on track, organizing learning, and avoiding internal and external distractions. The results of this study have implications for course design.