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Drawing on research literature on online discussion and on reading and learning from the text, we argue that research on learning from text has much to offer but has been largely absent in informing the design and study of online learning environments. We propose several key issues to be considered in research and development of online discussion, and a framework for examining the goals and features of online discussions. We then report on an exploratory study of an online discussion environment informed by this framework.

This study examined how intellectual openness and gender affected the extent to which students engaged in dialectic critical discourse in computer-supported collaborative argumentation (CSCA). This study found: a) indications of differences in the number of personal rebuttals posted in reply to direct challenges between more versus less open students (ES = +0.33); b) significant differences in the number of rebuttals posted between males and females (ES = +0.66); c) significant differences in number of personal rebuttals posted between the less open versus more open students among the males (ES = +1.32), but not among the females (ES =-0.19); and d) no difference in the types of responses posted in reply to challenges between more open versus less open students. These findings illustrate how the effects of intellectual openness can be mediated by gender, or vice versa, how openness can potentially affect student performance in CSCA, and how process-oriented strategies can be used to analyze and structure discussions to promote critical discourse.

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This research explores students ' perceptions of their learning while using Blackboard's asynchronous discussion board. It aims to understand through in-depth qualitative analysis how students perceive their construction of knowledge while using dialogue in an e-learning context. While attempting to comprehend the links between how a student perceives the use of dialogue and what they actually do in the learning task, the study explores individual constructions of knowledge in this environment, while outlining commonalities between different learners. The research maintains that an understanding by the teacher of students ' perceptions of their learning while using dialogue in an e-learning environment provides comprehension of the nexus between how students understand a phenomenon belonging to a learning task and what they actually do in undertaking that task. For the teacher, and underlying a heuristic teaching objective, an insight into these perceptions provides a means from which to develop the learning context into one that truly stimulates the individual and social construction of knowledge. The study illustrates that asynchronous dialogue within a web interface can provide an educational tool that is conducive to learning in that it helps students construct knowledge as a result of using and interacting within an online discussion board. The research shows that students use and construct knowledge within the context in different ways, but go about learning within a constructivist framework through which they gain knowledge and become better learners.