Networked electronic text--fragmentary, mutable, connected, and instantly accessible from any computer or handheld device--challenges traditional notions of textual coherence and composition, offering affordances far beyond those possible in traditional, print-based texts, including those made available electronically. Such texts become tools,…

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…

This study examines the extent to which conceptual change is stimulated and achieved through online discussion in the context of an online graduate course. Transcripts of discussions among 15 graduate students studying assessment issues in mathematics and science education were analyzed using an interaction analysis model developed to assess…