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Read-Only Participants: a Case for Student Communication in Online Classes

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"Read-Only Participants: A Case for Student Communication in Online Classes"
In the article written by Lynette Nagle, Seugnet , and Johannes Cronje "Read-Only Participants: A Case for Student Communication in Online Classes" they talk about a wide array or reasons why students have done well or run into some learning barriers while taking online courses. As a professor with a Ph.D. in Computer-Integrated Education, Nagel understands participation in an online course and staying current with all assignments was what they needed to become more self-driven, empowering there initiative and interacting more freely between the other students along with them. Such as, in this course we learn and write about topics posed to us for all to see and read. We also form a dialogue/debate amongst each other with our responses.
Once completed, the study which involved an eight week long elective course that encompassed a wide range of age groups along with different socio-economic and geographical areas, Nagel’s theory proved to be correct. That when it came to the course or assignments given, not all participants had to be involved with the other students or professors, but it was key to have open forums for discussions and debate with all the members of the class. Virtual classrooms were shown, having online areas where students could have discussions, not only yielded positive results from the students that are doing well in the class to forming a sense of unity and bond with everyone in the online classroom atmosphere. The study showed that having required discussion questions to answer along with replies to the posts motivated them to participate and brought the “read only participants,” into the active learning environment, thus making them more successful. A "read only participant" is a student that just reads the discussion questions, and does not share themselves

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