Scaffolding Deliberations

Developing student engagement online necessitates creating a specifically designed online site to foster interaction alongside regularly structured academic requirements. By creating this deliberative opportunity, students share and discuss varied perspectives on current and controversial issues. Using data from a spring 2023 collaboration course across the two geographically dispersed universities in New York and Texas, student engagement forms were assessed for their academic educational outcomes. Significant findings revealed that students challenged and clarified their varied perspectives across the institutions. In addition, their interaction and engagement resulted in greater satisfaction with their course work while lessening their learner isolation during our social distancing protocols.