Tianxiao Yang

Background: Asynchronous Online Discussion (AOD) has been frequently employed in higher education as a vital component of online learning activities. However, previous research has highlighted that students in AODs often exhibit a lack of frequent interaction and high‐quality dialogues. Objectives: This research seeks to address the aforementioned shortcomings by introducing the think‐pair‐share (TPS) cooperative learning structure as a potential instructional solution. The objectives of the study are twofold: firstly, to ascertain whether a cohort engaging in TPS AODs performs better than one participating in traditional AODs; and secondly, to glean insights into students' perspectives on the newly implemented TPS AOD design, thereby facilitating its further refinement. Methods: Through integrating a TPS structure into a set of AODs, the research team used an explanatory sequential design comprising both a quantitative content analysis and a qualitative content analysis. Quantitatively, 3520 postings created by two student cohorts (21 students for each cohort) were analysed to explore the students' AOD performance differences. Qualitatively, the research team interviewed eight students from the TPS cohort to understand their perspectives on the TPS AOD design. Results and Conclusions: The TPS AOD cohort significantly outperformed the non‐TPS AOD cohort regarding their cognitive engagement and knowledge construction. However, there were no significant differences detected between the two groups on their interaction frequency, informational length, and social presence. The interviewed students' perspectives demonstrated the successes and weaknesses of this instructional solution, which could enlighten researchers to ameliorate the TPS AODs in the future.

The prevalence of ChatGPT uses in higher education prompted instructors to apply AI ethics to their classroom, which are moral standards of AI uses. Yet, as a primary group of AI users, undergraduates’ perspectives have rarely been explored to help instructors integrate AI ethics into the classroom. Using a mixed-method approach, this study explored 110 undergraduate students’ agreement levels on five AI ethics from a previous study, the factors influencing their agreement levels, and the rationales explaining their choices. The study showed that undergraduate students agreed with “autonomy” most and “justice” least; gender and grade level could predict their agreement levels; moreover, 14 themes were discovered regarding students’ rationales. Its results enlighten instructors to highlight public interests, consider students’ diversity, develop specific guidelines, and facilitate attitudinal changes in the process of applying instructions about AI ethics.

An asynchronous online discussion (AOD) is considered a commonly used cooperative learning activity in distance education. However, few studies have explored whether AODs are designed in accordance with the conditions of cooperative learning and whether students are able to achieve higher levels of cognitive learning through interactions in AODs. This case study explored if an AOD was designed to meet cooperative learning conditions and whether students generated interactions and accomplished higher levels of cognitive learning. The results suggested that in an AOD where cooperative learning conditions were rarely met, students barely interacted and only manifested lower levels of cognitive learning. The researchers proposed that an AOD may not achieve the expected cooperative learning outcomes unless it is well-structured with a systematical integration of cooperative learning theory.