My Instructional Innovation Classroom Research project will take approximately 10 weeks, involving two English courses, ENG101 and ENG102, with a total of 70 students. This project will investigate if incorporating online discussions in the process of drafting an essay can better help students in ENG101 and ENG102 compose essays that show the following: 1) to communicate at a higher level of critical thinking with a variety of sentence structures and complex academic vocabulary; 2) to engage source materials more meaningfully by exhibiting the ability to critique the main ideas in the reading and by integrating its argument in the essay; and 3) to present a better organized essay with a strong thesis and specific supporting details. I have been using the discussion board as part of the course requirements for all my writing classes taught at COC and have found that it has positive impacts on my students’ reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. This will be the first time that I conduct a formal action research to determine the scope and the degree of its impact on my students’ writing. With tangible classroom research results, I can better inform and refine my pedagogy for cornerstone courses such as these mentioned above.
    ENG101 focuses on the principles and methods of expository writing, while ENG102, built on the critical thinking, reading, and writing practices begun in English 101, continues on writing of argumentative essays by focusing on the critical analysis, interpretation, and evaluation of literary works. In both ENG101 and ENG102, four out-of-class essays are required. To assess the suspected effectiveness of online discussions in writing courses, two of the four essays, in addition to the normal practice of discussing reading and writing material in class, will incorporate online discussions in the process of drafting the essays prior to the paper due dates. The proposed research will compare the results of the two essays using online discussions with the two without them.
    The outline of the project will follow as such: The first and the third essays will follow the “normal” face-to-face class writing procedure: in-class discussions of the readings, brainstorming, in-class free-writing, and peer-editing of the drafts; the second and the fourth essays will incorporate online discussions, in addition to the above mentioned activities taken place in class. For each one of the two essay assignments (Essays 2 and 4), discussion board prompts with specific directions will be set up, asking students to offer their thoughts on the designated writing topics and assigned reading, and to respond/critique their classmates’ postings. As writing takes shape often via various stages, at least 2 postings will be required for each pilot essay with two replies responding to their classmates’ postings.
    The discussion board will also provide, to a fuller and truer extend, a democratic learning environment for a writing class because all students will have the opportunity to express their thoughts and offer the class their critique on the subject and others’ writings. It solicits a more equal contribution to class discussions from all students, instead of, as it often happens, the class being dominated by more vocal students. I believe that students write better and think more deeply if effective writing activities are constructed for them. Hence, I suspect that, because students are asked to articulate their thoughts on the reading and writing topics in writing, on the discussion board, they will be asked to pay closer attention to the readings, develop better reading and thinking skills, employ, more extensively, academic vocabulary, and consequently write better essays. The ability to write better will prepare them for upper level writing- and reading-intensive courses and develop their critical thinking skills more substantially.

The overarching objective of this project is two-fold: 1) to determine if online tools--the discussion board, to be specific--may help students negotiate complex readings and develop articulated thoughts in the process of writing, and, as a result, present better academic essays; and 2) to inform the instructor if the discussion board is an effective tool to enhance teaching especially for writing courses, and to what extend should the discussion board be incorporated. The central pedagogical questions during the course of investigation are: “How can writing prompts be designed in ways that are conducive to a high-level of thinking and analysis of the reading?” and “What length of the writing requirement for the posting will be most effective in soliciting complex thoughts?”
      Both ENG101 and ENG102 emphasize on developing and improving students’ reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. The discussion board gives students more reasons/places to write and provide them with opportunities to think deeply and to respond to readings and others’ thoughts without the pressure of having to think on their feet. In addition, these cornerstone courses are often the first courses students encounter at the beginning of their college career. By offering them more opportunities to dialogue with each other through writing, I hope to foster a stronger sense of a learning community.

Two forms of evaluations will be used to assess the effectiveness of using the discussion board in the writing courses. To reliably evaluate the project, both the Instructor’s assessment (qualitative assessment) and the students’ perspectives (quantitative assessment) will need to be gathered
    To begin with, for writing courses, I have been using an Essay Evaluation Form that spells out the rubric, the required components of an academic essay, and grading criteria to evaluate my students’ papers. This Form provides a consistency in evaluating essays and suggests areas of improvement for students’ papers throughout the semester. Since there is a consistency in my grading of the papers, I can compare the grades students receive in all four essays and see if, or what percentages of, the essays utilizing online discussions receive higher grades. This method will provide a qualitative evaluation of the project.
    Another method of evaluation will come from students’ opinions, gauging if or how the discussion board has helped them with their writing. Two online surveys, each with 10 questions, will be conducted to gather quantitative data of students’ opinions. The surveys will take place, respectively, immediately after the second and the forth essays are completed. With a point scale of 5 to 1, (Strongly Agree, Somewhat Agree, Neutral, Somewhat Disagree, and Strongly Agree), students will be asked to answer such questions as, “The Discussion Board postings have helped me generate ideas for writing essay” or “The Discussion Board has provided me with opportunities to think more critically.” A quantitative data will be collected and analyzed.

EDU090, which I completed in Winter, 2006, explores the following: “the application of learning theories for online learners; differences between face-to-face and online learning; resources for online teaching and learning; course management systems and online learning tools; and 'Best Practices' for online learning.” What have proven most valuable and interesting to me are the second and the third course objectives about addressing the differences between face-to-face and online teaching and learning, as well as resources for online teaching and learning. In one of the articles read for the course, Katrina Meyer in “The Ebb and Flow of Online Discussion” sets out to evaluate three assertions: “1) students in an online discussion proceed through higher levels of thinking; 2) Online conversations follow an “ebb and flow” pattern; 3) The level of the first posting to the discussion influences the level of subsequent postings.” My proposed research will address the first assertion made in Meyer’s study and analyze if the result of my study reflects that of Meyer’s.
    Another invaluable tool that I learned in EDU090 was the information on the resources for online teaching and learning. I will use a low-cost online tool, Quia, to design, distribute, and analyze the surveys mentioned above. A total of four surveys, two for each course, will be conducted for this research. The service provided by Quia will track the number of the students participating in the survey and provide me with immediate results/data/feedback without infringing upon students’ privacy. By looking at students’ responses to using the discussion board, I can modify my teaching along the way.
    At a larger scale of consideration, as COC is moving towards the direction of offering more online courses and an AA degree completely online, technology, it seems to me, will direct the future of higher education. Many articles that we read for the course and participants of EDU090 debate on the effectiveness of technology in education; meanwhile, we also discussed extensively on the methods to better utilize online tools in our teaching. Regardless if one agrees that technology facilitates effective learning as compared to face-to-fact instruction and learning, one cannot avoid the role technology is already playing in higher education. I want to be part of a moving force that will help COC faculty devise effective online teaching and assessment methods to better prepare our students for both their academic and work considerations.

I have been employing the discussion board as part of the class requirements in many of my classes since Fall, 2003. This research can provide me with a better understanding of students’ perspectives on using online tools in writing classes and to what degree they think they benefit from it, in comparison to the grades reflected in their essays. It will also help me focus on devising effective writing prompts that will entice students to write more, communicate intelligently, and present argument persuasively. In addition, by exploring more fully online tools such as those provided by Quia.com, I can better my skills in designing and interpreting surveys to gain immediate feedback from the students. In the near future, I hope to use more online, easy-to-use surveys that will better inform me of students’ varying learning styles and preferences, and see what other ways I can help them succeed in their writing efforts.
    Additionally, I have a strong interest in becoming an ENG101 Coordinator, starting Fall, 2007. By continuing to use and refine online teaching and learning tools, I want to use my experiences and expertise to assist my colleagues teaching 101, and other writing courses, to feel more comfortable with technology and to employ effective online tools based on their teaching and students’ learning styles.