Abstract

The use of the Internet to deliver courses at tertiary level is growing steadily, with the Internet being seen as the ideal solution to a range of issues facing educators in the 21st century. However, little is known as how best to use synchronous communication to support students' learning. This paper documents a New Zealand tertiary course entitled "Occupational Therapy and the Internet", delivered primarily on the Web using online chat. Findings from this study show that synchronous communication could facilitate content-related, in-depth, discussion and students valued the sharing of experience and the high quality of the learning gained. Issues in using synchronous communication in course delivery are also identified in this paper.

Citation

Penman, M. & Lai, K.W. (2003). Synchronous Communication and Higher-Order Thinking in a Tertiary Course in Occupational Therapy. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 14(4), 387-404. Norfolk, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved August 5, 2024 from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/1993/.

© 2003 Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)

Keywords

• 21st century
• Educational Technology
• ICT
• Information Communication Technologies
• Networking Technologies
• Professional Development