Knowledge articulation dialog increases online university science course outcomes

University graduate level science courses (over four different semesters) were investigated to measure how knowledge articulation dialog (in discussion forums) improved essay and case study scores. The knowledge articulation teaching methodology was integrated from the educational psychology and knowledge management literature while Socratic questioning was drawn from the education community of practice. A quasi-experiment (with strong degree of control) was configured, with teaching method (knowledge articulation versus questioning) being the treatment factor. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, ANOVA, MANOVA and MANCOVA techniques were utilized to test the hypothesis.