Critical Thinking Skills in Virtual Learning Environments

Abstract

As the increase in the growth of online education continues with the expansion of both online courses and programs within higher education, the most recent challenge faced by educators is how to incorporate the basic skill of critical thinking into synchronous and asynchronous virtual courses successfully. For instructors, it is then crucial to understand the correlation between critical thinking and an online learning environment. The greater goal of this chapter is to better understand the intersection of critical thinking within online delivery systems and virtual learning environments. This chapter also examines the various barriers and challenges to successful integration of delivering critical thinking courses online, while at the same time building on existing critical thinking research in an effort to connect existing critical thinking concepts to current new media and web 2.0 tools in order to reach the ‘digital native' in the online course.