Action Research on Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace
The paper reports action research on web-based courses conducted from 1999 to 2001. The goal of the research was to investigate students’ opinions toward such courses and to examine the impact of using different strategies on online communities. Data collection relied on online discussion messages, observations, interviews, and surveys. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were utilized in this study. The results revealed that students and the instructor were in favor of web-based courses and that the use of
moderating strategies greatly influenced online communities.
