In this article, the authors present a "telling case" of the history of the Santa Barbara Classroom Discourse Group (SBCDG) and describe how policies supported and constrained the work of this sustaining community. As a telling case, this discussion of policy issues that were constructed and faced by members of the SBCDG does not claim…

Many online classes use synchronous communication--chat--as a way to conduct class discussion. However, chat can quickly disintegrate into nonproductive chaos if allowed to flow unchecked. The tools provided by course management systems such as Blackboard provide one solution to this problem by allowing instructors to grant or deny access to…

This article elaborates a model for understanding pedagogy in online educational forums. The model identifies four key components. Intellectual engagement describes the foreground cognitive processes of collaborative learning. Communication processes operating in the background accumulate an ever richer store of shared understandings that enable…