A Tale of Two Forums: One Professor's Path to Improve Learning through a Common Online Teaching Tool

As institutional and market pressures move more faculty into the online teaching space, renewed discussions are occurring about how to best teach online, and what features of online courses are best to employ. A distance learning staple, the online discussion, or asynchronous discussion forum (ADF) is an easy strategy for faculty to employ in an online course. However, tying ADFs to course goals, and ensuring they are deployed in ways that truly advance student learning is more difficult. This article provides an overview of ADFs and their role in the online teaching environment. The author reviews his own experiences with ADFs in a graduate educational administration course. Using a theoretical framework for quality distance education, the author critiques his own early efforts and subsequent improvements, ultimately providing a structure for other faculty to use as a model for their own ADF implementations.