<\/p>\n
Team 4 is Jean-Pierre Joubert<\/a>, Christopher Rowe<\/a>, Vanessa Tran<\/a> and Eric Yu<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Over the past number of weeks, Team 4 has investigated developing a Community of Inquiry, or CoI (CoI framework, n.d.) using Discord (Your place to talk, n.d.). Specifically, we reviewed Konstantinou and Epps\u2019 report regarding their implementation of Discord to develop a CoI within a first-year engineering course (2017). Discord, it appears, is a highly useful tool for education, allowing both synchronous and asynchronous communication, as well as storage of documents and information.<\/p>\n Based on our research we were able to developed a Genially (n.d.) presentation outlining teaching, social and cognitive presences within CoI, strategies to support discourse. In addition, the presentation contains a critical analysis of several key concerns with CoI, namely mandatory vs. non-mandatory use, data collection and privacy, as well as accessibility and identity. This presentation was then expanded through the use of video to incorporate audio explanations as well as closed captioning in order to provide a more detailed explanation of the content.<\/p>\n This information was presented to our cohort within the LRNT526 course (2021), along with a practical demonstration using Discord. While our cohort has been actively using Discord as a CoI for roughly a year, our Team demonstrated a more course-based implementation incorporating channels and bots during a breakout activity. A second, separate Genially presentation was created for use during this activity.<\/p>\n Overall, we found that Discord to be an excellent tool which meets the needs of a Community of Inquiry, with one of our Team beginning to use a similar implementation for staff within a Higher Ed context. Despite its effectiveness in this regard, there remain number of concerns remaining, namely Discord\u2019s poor protections regarding user data (Discord privacy policy, 2020). As a result, we remain hesitant with its mandatory use within any course, instead recommending it remain an optional component. Informing students of the relevant data policies while allowing student choice over their personal information, in our estimation, critical. It may be that there are alternatives that may have more reasonable data policies. Further research is recommended in this regard.<\/p>\n (Edited to correct “Presentation References” title to “Blog Post References” on 5\/13\/21 @ 7:32 AM AST)<\/em><\/p>\n Blog Post References<\/strong><\/p>\n Athabasca University. (n.d.). CoI framework. Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https:\/\/coi.athabascau.ca\/coi-model\/<\/a><\/p>\n Discord. (2020). Discord privacy policy. https:\/\/discord.com\/new\/privacy<\/a><\/p>\n Genially. (n.d.). Retrieved May 10, 2021, from https:\/\/www.genial.ly\/<\/a><\/p>\n Konstantinou, G., & Epps, J. (2017). Facilitating online casual interactions and creating a community of learning in a first-year electrical engineering course. 2017 IEEE 6th International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE), 128\u2013133. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1109\/TALE.2017.8252317<\/a><\/p>\n Your place to talk. (n.d.). Retrieved May 10, 2021, from https:\/\/discord.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n Activity References<\/strong><\/p>\n The following references were provided by group participants during the activity regarding the use of Open Book and Closed Book exams.<\/p>\n Open Book Exams<\/em><\/p>\n https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpsyg.2019.00463\/full<\/a> Closed Book Exams<\/em><\/p>\n
\nhttps:\/\/files.eric.ed.gov\/fulltext\/EJ1092705.pdf<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/1901.01347<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/abs\/10.1145\/3357713.3384290<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/eric.ed.gov\/?id=EJ1092705<\/a><\/p>\n