Summarizing Online Discussion

Tips

Reder and Anderson (1980) showed that college students remember more important material from reading chapter summaries than from reading entire textbook chapters. In addition, Mayer et al.(1996), showed not only that students remember more of the important material when it is presented as a summary but that they also better understand the material.

• The process of compiling discussion threads and posting them again increases learning.

Related Resources

Snowman, J. (1986). Learning tactics and strategies. In G.D. Phye & T. Andre (Eds.), Cognitive classroom learning: Understanding, thinking, and problem solving (pp. 243-275). Orlando: Academic press.

Mayer, R.E., Bove, W., Bryman, A., Mars, R., & Tapangco, L. (1996). When less is more:meaningful learning from visual and verbal summaries of science textbook lessons. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88, 64-73.