Assessing students' contributions to online asynchronous discussions in university-level courses

Abstract

Students’ critical analysis of their participation in and contribution to course-based online discussions represents a means to assess their performance at the end of the discussion. It can also serve as a means to direct participation and thinking and to improve their performance in the discussion. This paper presents the case of a graduate level online course in which criteria are provided to students to direct and self assess their participation in and contribution to a text-based asynchronous discussion. One student’s analysis is presented outlining the quantity of her participation in terms of number of postings and the quality in terms of the types of claims and grounding provided. The paper concludes with some implications for practice and research.