e-chronicle

Discussion forums provide the ability for asynchronous social interaction, formal and/or informal, to occur over a designated period of time. Students have the time for in-depth reflection and edit their work before posting, and because of potential peer feedback and influence, better quality work is produced. Equalising student participation in discussion forums helps to build a sense of community, create connection, engage and empower students in peer learning. The historical record created enables students and instructors to monitor student’s development over time. Effective discussions should fall into one of three categories: social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence. The lack of immediate feedback and privacy in the forums can be overcome with time and familiarity with the asynchronous nature, and a sensitive instructor. Posting wars and flaming can be avoided with close monitoring, and the establishment of norms, netiquette and code of conduct. Lack of motivation to post may be overcome with appropriate questioning techniques, concrete incentives or games.

Dawley, L 2007, ‘Discussion forums’, in The tools for successful online teaching, Information Science Publishing, Hershey, pp. 70–97. 

This entry was posted on May 17, 2008 at 9:33 pm and is filed under Web 2.0, communication, e-learning, learning community, sense of community, social learning, web-based learning tools.