Building the SCAFFOLD for evaluating threaded discussion forum activity: describing and categorizing contributions

Author(s):  
L.P. Dringus ◽  
T.J. Ellis
Author(s):  
Sandra Wills ◽  
Anne McDougall

This study tracks the uptake of online role play in Australia from 1990 to 2006 and the affordances to its uptake. It examines reusability, as one affordance to uptake, from the perspective of two often polarized constructs: learning object and learning design. The study treats “reuse” in two ways: reuse of an existing online role play and reuse of an online role play as the model for another role play. The first type of reuse implies the online role play is a learning object and the second type implies the online role play derives from a learning design. Online role play consists of a scenario and a set of roles that students adopt in order to collaboratively solve a problem, create something, or explore an issue via e-mail or a combination of e-mail and Web-based threaded discussion forum. Thirty-six role plays of this type were identified in Australian universities of which 80% were reuse of a learning design. Only three examples of role play as a learning object were found, suggesting that learning design is a useful concept for understanding how to support reusability in universities. Other affordances to uptake of role play were also tracked. This indicated that the contribution of educational developers far outweighed that of academic colleagues, conferences, journals, and engines. The results have implications for the work practices of educational developers and for managers of learning object repositories.


Author(s):  
Haidar Moukdad

Sample contributions by Arab contributors to a discussion forum were analyzed to study the role of the Web in promoting free speech and demystifying long held views of Arab public opinion. The findings of the study highlight the importance of the role played by the Web in promoting free speech among traditionally repressed populations, and provide insights that will help in correcting misconceptions about Arab public opinion.Un échantillonnage d’interventions par des participants arabes à un forum de discussion a été analysé afin d’étudier le rôle du Web dans le développement de la liberté de parole et la démystification des préjugés concernant l’opinion publique arabe. Les résultats de l’étude mettent en lumière l’importance du rôle joué par le Web dans le développement de la liberté de parole parmi les populations traditionnellement réprimées et offrent des idées qui aideront à corriger les idées préconçues concernant l’opinion publique arabe. 


NASPA Journal ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan B Hirt ◽  
Darrell Cain ◽  
Brad Bryant ◽  
Eric Williams

As colleges and universities develop distance learning programs, administrators have scrambled to provide on-line services for distance learners. But do learners need such services? The present study examined how important services were for distance learners and how satisfied they were with the services provided to them. Data were collected through a national on-line survey and threaded discussion. Results revealed that services overall were not particularly important to participants, though there were significant differences by age and class status.


Author(s):  
Bing Wu

AbstractAlthough some studies have explored massive open online courses (MOOCs) discussion forums and MOOC online reviews separately, studies of both aspects are insufficient. Based on the theory of self-determination, this paper proposes research hypotheses that MOOC learning progress has a direct impact on MOOC online reviews and an indirect influence on MOOC online reviews through social interactions in discussion forums, as well. Coursera the largest MOOC platform, is selected as the empirical research object, and data from learners who participated in the MOOC discussion forum and provided MOOC online reviews from August 2016 to December 2019 are obtained from the most popular course, “Machine Learning”. After processing, data from 4376 learners are obtained. Then, according to research hypotheses, multi regression models are constructed accordingly. The results show that the length of MOOC online review text is affected by the MOOC learning progress, the number of discussion forum posts, the number of follow, the online review sentiment and MOOC rating. This study highlights the main factors that affect MOOC online reviews. As a result, some suggestions are put forward for the construction of MOOC.


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