Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to provide insight on the differences between the formation and effectiveness of small groups for on-site and online courses, and to present some guidelines to improve student interactions in small group discussions online. This paper highlights the challenges students and educational institutions face with group interaction in online courses. There has been published research for con-site small groups, but not as abundantly for online small groups. In an effort to provide more insight for small group interactions, the author has conducted research using action research. The author is in progress of conducting a mixture of action research and a multi-level approach using different technical tools for online collaboration. The author shares his experience as a professor at DeVry University in Long Beach, California where he has had the opportunity to teach courses in three different formats: on-site, online and blended, and has first-hand experience for forming small groups to fulfill the requirements of the course. The author discusses specific challenges at DeVry University in forming small groups and shares recommendations to create similar small group outcomes for both on-site and online courses. The problem addressed is how to improve student interaction in small group discussions online to make them as effective as on-site discussions at DeVry University.  The recommendations or solutions will be specific to meet the needs of DeVry University, but could fit other institutions as well.