A Systematic Review of Empirical Studies on Participants’ Interactions in Internet-Mediated Discussion Boards as a Course Component in Formal Higher Education Settings

Authors

  • Hong Zhou University of Texas at San Antonio

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v19i3.675

Keywords:

Systematic review, online discussion, interaction, higher education

Abstract

This systematic review and synthesis of existing empirical studies examines peer-reviewed research articles published between January 2000 and May 2014 on the use of Internet-mediated discussion boards in higher education settings with a specific interest in the participants’ interactions. Forty-two primary studies were examined after a systematic search and full text review. The findings from the primary studies regarding participants’ interactions were analyzed using constant comparison coding techniques. The analysis and its results indicate several potential directions for future research, and connect the primary studies to provide a more holistic understanding of the participants’ interactions in Internet-mediated discussions in the higher education setting.

Author Biography

Hong Zhou, University of Texas at San Antonio

College of Education and Human Development Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching

Downloads

Published

2015-04-06

Issue

Vol. 19 No. 3 (2015)

Section

Review of Literature

License

As a condition of publication, the author agrees to apply the Creative Commons – Attribution International 4.0 (CC-BY) License to OLJ articles. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

This licence allows anyone to reproduce OLJ articles at no cost and without further permission as long as they attribute the author and the journal. This permission includes printing, sharing and other forms of distribution.

Author(s) hold copyright in their work, and retain publishing rights without restrictions