Best Practices of Faculty in Facilitating Online Asynchronous Discussions for Higher Student Satisfaction

Abstract

The importance of faculty interaction with students in online discussions has been emphasized upon in numerous studies earlier. However, few studies highlighted the best practices and modus-operandi of professors while facilitating asynchronous online discussions for better student satisfaction. In this study, the taxonomy proposed by Blignaut & Trollip (2003) was utilized by including two more dimensions namely, the discussion board (DB) topics and length of the faculty postings to measure the teaching presence in four completed classes of the same subject facilitated by four different professors. This exercise helped in measuring the teaching presence of the four professors and linking the same to the student satisfaction scores obtained by them. The study provides insights into the best practices including the “dos” and “don’ts” for professors facilitating online asynchronous discussions to achieve higher student satisfaction.

Keywords: Best practices, Faculty, Online asynchronous discussions, Student satisfaction