Designing Discussion for Online and Blended Courses

Dr Dianne Forbes is a digital learning specialist with a background in teacher education and a particular interest in online (blended/hybrid) pedagogies in tertiary education. Her primary research interests are the human, social and relational dimensions of learning through digital technologies, including ethics and professionalism. She studies innovative pedagogies, from low-tech asynchronous forum discussions, to podcasts, video, social media and flipped/blended learning. A consistent focus of her work is the perspectives and experiences of students and teachers as participants in digital learning.

Associate Professor Nicola Daly is a sociolinguist in the Division of Education at the University of Waikato, New Zealand where she teaches children’s literature online and leads the Postgraduate Certificate in Children’s and Young Adult Literature. She also co-directs the Waikato Picturebook Research Unit. Her work explores multilingualism and language hierarchies in children's picturebooks, recognising the power of this often underestimated format in the development of language attitudes and the perpetuation of hegemonies. In 2019/2020  she was a Fulbright New Zealand Scholar at the University of Arizona, USA.

Dr Liang Li is working at the School of Arts and the School of Education at the University of Waikato. She is interested in using digital tools to enhance teaching and learning experiences. With a background in corpus linguistics, she actively contributes to the FLAX project and helps develop a corpus-based language learning and analysis tool tailored for EAP (English for Academic Purposes) learners and researchers. As an online instructor, she embraces various tools including asynchronous discussion forums, Perusall and Wikis to foster collaborative learning environments online.