Improving the Quality of Student Interaction in Discussion Threads at DeVry University

This research will address ways to improve the quality of students' interaction in discussion threads for an online course by examining factors that contribute to reaching this goal. The study was conducted by using action research and observations by the author for an online Principles of Computer Security course which he taught many times over the past five years at DeVry University. Past research has shown that online courses provide the ability for students to have a rich environment for virtual discussions, which is an integral part of an online course. The results of this research reinforce past findings and examine ways that the quality of the online discussions can be highly improved and more interactive. In this research, the author will show how to measure the level of depth of a discussion when examining student interaction.