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RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PRACTICE Based on our experience in designing academic chat spaces, instructors should be aware that learners in a chat room follow a process in order to reach shared understanding. SECTION 4: COMMUNITY OF INQUIRY ARTICLES BY OTHER DISTANCE LEARNING AUTHORS INTRODUCTION Online learning discussion formats provide an opportunity for learners to share their experiences, negotiate meaning, and take ownership of the subject matter. Instructors can caution learners that academic chat is not the same as casual chat, such as instant messaging. In the absence of feedback, learners in the chat room will allocate their time to the social, facilitative, and content statements in a similar way from chat to chat. [Extracted from the article]

If coaching on discussion skills can increase student performance in the discussion, how then might instructors create a safe space for learners to practice and learn the art of discussion in an ongoing discussion-based environment? Continuous coaching and feedback can reinforce the power of learner-led discussions to foster more interdependent learners so they can conduct inquiries together and model collaborative learning. In a physical classroom, instructors can model moderator and discussant skills and have learners practice those skills in the presence of the instructor. We use e-coaching for inquiry-based assignments, and we use tools such as email to provide coaching and feedback to learners who participate in synchronous discussions. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the use of electronic coaching strategies for synchronous discussions in distance education. It explains the concepts of inquiry-based discussion and electronic-coaching. The author also discusses the use of chats in an inquiry-based course, along with suggestions on how to use electronic coaching and chats in online education.

This naturalistic inquiry explored the theory of transactional distance by investigating how a novice adult learner experiences an online environment. Three themes that are related to how the novice learner reduces the transactional distance space emerged from an analysis of interview transcripts: creating a voice for learning, connecting in a space for learning, and creating a time for learning. Initially, instructors play a critical role in helping novice learners develop identities as online learners and work in that dialogic space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the experiences of students who take part in online learning chat groups. It is a study which measures the learning performance of group members who unavoidably get involved in mindful and mindless multitasking during online learning chats in the Internet. The results help learners prioritize their activities during text-based chats. In this way, degrees of attention become balanced and the learning performance of online chat groups is maximized.

This article discusses the framework for using academic text-based chats in the courses of college instructors, describes the process learners use to create shared meaning and presents recommendations for practice. It has been found that online discussion boards offer opportunities for individual students to form an understanding of the issues over a period of time. Online discussion boards provide learners the ability to reflect on their thoughts as they type them in a message entry area.