Action research to design a model for mediation in online discussion forums

Abstract

Online discussion forums are potentially invaluable for developing learners’ higher order thinking skills through the power of writing and reflection in quality online learning spaces. In such forums, learners’ interactions are facilitated, or mediated, by instructors to create more meaningful and effective constructivist-based learning. Despite a wealth of instructor mediation theories and the recent global movement to online/blended teaching precipitated by COVID, few practical application mediation models exist. The purpose of the study was to (1) present a mediation strategy model for instructors, drawn from the analysis of an intervention program designed to develop higher order thinking, and (2) explore how those mediation strategies may be applied in these forums individually and collectively. Qualitative data were gathered through asynchronous forums, a post-survey, and my observation notes. Three existing content analysis instruments, the Interaction Analysis Model, Cognitive Dimension of Revised Bloom's Taxonomy, and Krathwohl's Affective Domain were used to translate participants’ forum interactions into quantitative data. I created an original coding framework to analyze instructional mediation strategies by generating categories inductively from the raw data. This framework, presented herein, forms the basis of a new, practical mediation model, consisting of twenty strategy-based codes in four broad categories−Cognitive-Related, Affective-Related, Co-construction-Related, and Overarching. The study concludes that learners’ thoughts appear to broaden and deepen in forums when an intentional, contingent blend of cognitive mediation strategies is merged with mediation strategies aimed at building (1) affect for rapport, and (2) social interaction for the co-construction of knowledge.