Abstract—Research confirms that designing effective online learning environments positively affects students understanding, motivation and retention. This paper analyzes the design and facilitation of an online seminar created for a graduate level university course that was held for ten days. It highlights current research on effective social constructive pedagogies and frameworks used to design online learning environments. It examines effective facilitation and discussion techniques that serve as vehicles for collaborative and motivational learning. This paper concludes that educators can ensure that online learning communities enable learning through effective construction, design and facilitation of online environments.

Index Terms—Pedagogy, technology, instructional design, social presence.

L. Taylor is with the College of Business at Massey University, New Zealand (email: 134lorraine@gmail.com).

Cite: Lorraine Taylor, "A Virtual Online Seminar: Integrating Pedagogy and Technology," International Journal of e-Education, e-Business, e-Management and e-Learning vol. 2, no. 6, pp. 509-512, 2012.