Descriptive Post Titles as Advance Organizer: Effects on Critical Thinking and Cognitive Load in Asynchronous Threaded Discussions

• Other Authors: Hand, Karen Gail (authoraut)
• Format: Others
• Language: English; English
• Published: Florida State University
• Subjects: Instructional systems > Design; Computer science; Cognitive psychology
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_migr_etd-9346

As distance learning becomes increasingly prevalent in higher education in the 21st century, students and educators alike face new challenges to achieving key learning objectives, such as the attainment of critical thinking skills. Asynchronous threaded discussions in online classrooms provide a context where learners can develop and demonstrate their critical thinking skills. However, in an asynchronous threaded discussion, the learner is burdened with the need to retain the context and progression of multiple and concurrent ideas being developed and refined across a series of posts organized in different threads. Extraneous cognitive load caused by poorly organized discussions creates a potential barrier to critical thinking. It is anticipated that learners could benefit from a requirement to include descriptive titles on all posts to create a discussion forum index which would act as an advance organizer to help them form a mental representation of the overall structure of the discussion prior to reading each post. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect that requiring students to customize posts with descriptive titles, as a form of advance organizer, has on cognitive load and level of critical thinking exhibited in students' posts in asynchronous threaded discussions. This study is grounded in dialogic theory, cognitive load theory, and assimilation theory, which together provide a basis for the following research questions: What effect do descriptive post titles have on critical thinking in a debate on an asynchronous threaded discussion board? What effect do descriptive post titles have on cognitive load in a debate on an asynchronous threaded discussion board? This study used a mixed methods design consisting of both a quasi-experiment yielding quantitative data, and also a qualitative review of transcript data using a grounded theory approach. The quasi-experimental portion of the design consisted of collecting discussion board posts from a control group and an experimental group. Response patterns in the collected discussion board data were sequentially analyzed to identify the effects of descriptive post titles on response patterns that might demonstrate higher levels of critical thinking. A significantly higher number of challenges to arguments and explanations to arguments was found in the experimental group. A content analysis of the posts was conducted and a significantly higher number of indicators of critical thinking were found in the experimental group, while a significantly higher number of indicators of a lack of critical thinking were found in the control group. A composite cognitive load score was computed for each participant, based on measures from their average surface electromyography, average galvanic skin response, and average heat flux. Self-rated mental effort scores were also collected from each participant. The mean composite cognitive load scores were significantly higher in the control group than the experimental group, indicating that the physiological measures were effective in predicting cognitive load levels, whereas the self-rated mental effort scores were not effective in distinguishing cognitive load. A composite critical thinking score was developed for each individual and a correlation was confirmed between individual level of cognitive load and individual attainment of critical thinking in the discussion. Recommendations are made for how to incorporate these findings into learning management system software, as well as best practices for designing and facilitating discussion boards. The benefit to society of this study is that increasing the critical thinking skills of college students will better prepare graduates to meet the complex demands of the modern workforce and to be responsible members of society. === A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. === Spring Semester, 2015. === April 10, 2015. === advance organizers, biometrics, cognitive load, critical thinking, distance learning, instructional design === Includes bibliographical references. === Allan C. Jeong, Professor Directing Dissertation; John K. Mayo, University Representative; Vanessa P. Dennen, Committee Member; Valerie J. Shute, Committee Member.