This research describes a qualitative, naturalistic case study of a situation-specific, in-depth exploration of the use of ten student discussion roles in and adult education, online asynchronous discussions. Discussion roles were designed in order to enable students to respond better and create deeper and more meaning-filled threaded discussions, especially if students are intimidated by the online environment. Students who might benefit from discussion roles might be poor typists, ESL students, or those who are generally "new" to the online discussion environment. Explained in the following chapters are the ten specialized discussion roles, how they may be applied in asynchronous discussion, the instructor's role, scaffolding, and role evolution. Participants were first-year, Business Management Certificate college students attending an Organizational Behavior course at "Instructional College A" who participate in online asynchronous discussions. Bloom's Taxonomy (1956) served as a basis for the Discussion Response Rubric in order to analyze the discussions for higher level thinking. The findings demonstrate the success and versatility of utilizing roles in the online discussion to promote more meaningful discussions. The results reveal several positive outcomes of utilizing roles, especially evidence of students' use of deeper, higher-level thinking, social knowledge construction, and higher levels of knowledge construction. The conclusion reveals that discussion roles can help those adult students who struggle with writing online asynchronous discussion responses. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]