Given the importance of online instructional procedures that engage students in rich online discussions and enhance the quantity and the quality of the discussions, the purpose of this study was to investigate how a particular online instructor engaged graduate students in rich asynchronous online discussions, what roles the instructor played to engage graduate students in asynchronous online discussions, and how the instructional procedures used in this course were effective. Vygotsy's sociocultural framework and the pedagogy of mutiliteracies were used to frame this study. Qualitative and quantitative research methodologies were applied when analyzing the data. Triangulation of sources and review by inquiry participants were conducted to increase the credibility of the research results. Multiple data were collected from the professor, three teaching assistants, and six graduate students. All participants were interviewed about their online course experience. The results pointed out that the five-step instructional procedure, the use of e-mail interactions, and the presence of the instructor had a huge impact on the students' engagement in rich online discussions. In addition, interactions among instructors and students through e-mails positively affected the student-student and student-content interactions. The students' engagement in the discussions was enhanced when receiving consistent academic feedback from the instructor. Managerial and pedagogical roles were played most in this course. The findings particularly underlined the use of teaching assistants in helping with numerous online discussions required in an online course. Online educators will be able to implement effective instructional procedures and learning activities that engage students in rich online discussions and improve student learning achievement in online discussions in other online courses. In order to generalize the findings to larger populations, a longitude future research should be conducted to study engagement activities used by different online professors. [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.]