The purpose of this article was to explore student participation patterns in online discussion boards related to their characteristics and question types. The characteristics of students enrolled in an online course and the impact of types of discussion questions on student posts were examined. During the 16 weeks of a course, the participation patterns of 14 students and their 469 posts were analyzed to examine levels of collaboration. Findings suggested that posts stating individual perspectives were dominant regardless of the type of discussion question asked. Higher-order thinking questions yielded more collaborative patterns among students than questions asking the knowledge at the literal level. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)