Video- and voice-enabled discussion platforms have the potential to increase student engagement, leading to student success. The cloud-based discussion platform, VoiceThread, was used with undergraduate students in an online hospitality facilities management course. The findings revealed that students’ use of the audio function, both for posting their own responses and for listening to others, was a statistically significant predictor of student engagement with their classmates. The results from this mixed mode exploratory study offer theoretical implications for the CoI framework, as well as best practices for instructors interested in using VoiceThread, including discussion design and grading strategies.

具有视频和语音功能的讨论平台有可能增加学生的参与度，从而导致学生取得成功。基于云的讨论平台VoiceThread已与大学生一起用于在线酒店设施管理课程。调查结果表明，学生使用音频功能（用于发布自己的回复和聆听他人的声音）是学生与同学互动的统计显着预测指标。这项混合模式探索性研究的结果为CoI框架提供了理论上的启示，并为有兴趣使用VoiceThread的讲师提供了最佳实践，包括讨论设计和评分策略。