Medical students’ reflections in online discussions

Does teacher facilitation matter?

Abstract

In an online environment ‘teacher presence’ provides the structure, design and facilitation for students to engage in higher-order thinking and reflection. Reflective thinking involves critical analysis and evaluation of an issue or practice in order to understand and make sense of new information and relate it to prior knowledge and experience. This paper, which is part of a larger study, examines the quality of students’ reflections in online discussions when teacher facilitation is minimal or absent. Participants were 80 second year undergraduate medical students at a New Zealand university. Two online discussion assignments with different tasks were qualitatively analysed for levels of reflection. The findings suggest that students engaged in reflection despite lack of facilitation or minimal direction by teachers. Results indicate that online discussion can be an effective tool to encourage reflection in medical students irrespective of teacher facilitation.