scholarly journals Online Discussion Forum as a Tool for Interactive Learning and Communication

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 4852-4859
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Student Teacher ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Interactive Learning ◽  
Discussion Forum ◽  
Online Forum ◽  
Literacy Programme ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Online Discussion Forum

The digital millennials are very interactive in nature. They love to learn and interact with their peers, teachers, relatives, and environment through digital platforms. These interactions are being facilitated by the increasing rate of internet penetration and emerging digital media across the globe. The nature of today’s learners has increased the demand for use of student-centred learning approach such as Online Discussion Forum (ODF) across different levels of education. Online Discussion Forum (ODF) is being employed as a supportive tool to enhance interactive learning and student-teacher communication. The present study developed an Online Discussion Forum nicknamed “CSC forum” with a view to promote interactive learning, and communication among students, and teachers at the Department of Computer Science, Tai Solarin University of Education, Nigeria. The “CSC forum” facilitates exchange of ideas among students regarding course content and assignments, and also improved the quality of communications and relationship between students and teachers. The platform has a “Live Chat” module where members can engage in active conversations, and participate on group discussions on the go. It also provides a framework for improving the department’s information literacy programme, and specifically students’ participation in active learning as a way of improving their digital literacy skills. Given the relative importance of ODF, teachers are required to devote more time on the forum to provide feedbacks to pending student’s queries/postings, and also to offer clarifications on trending topics being deliberated upon on the forum. The discussion forum presented in this study proved effective for student-teacher interactions, communication and information dissimilation to students on school/departmental activities. More so, the study affirms that teacher guidance is crucial to stimulate student’s interest and participation in online forum. While factors such as poor power supply; low student/teacher commitment, poor quality of postings, Abusive posts, delayed feedbacks, poor internet connections and time constraints were found to limit the success of online forum

Social Media in Promoting HIV/AIDS Prevention Behaviour among Young People in Botswana

2014 ◽  
pp. 264-279
Author(s):  
Tshepo Batane
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Young People ◽  
Formative Evaluation ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Aids Prevention ◽  
Discussion Forum ◽  
Summative Evaluation ◽  
Online Forum ◽  
Online Discussion Forum ◽  
Hiv Aids

This chapter explores the effects of social media in influencing the behavior of young people in relation to HIV/AIDS. The platform used for the project is an online discussion forum. The study is a One Group Pretest and Posttest inquiry. Formative evaluation is performed at the beginning of the study to establish participants behaviour, the intervention is introduced, then a summative evaluation is done to find out whether the intervention had any effect on the behaviour of the participants. The findings of the study indicate that there is a significant change in the behaviour of participants in relation to HIV/AIDS due to the use of the online forum. The study recommends that more efforts need to be directed to the use of various technologies that young people have at their disposal in the fight against HIV/AIDS as this can be very economical and effective.

Using Traditional Classroom Facilitation Methods in Online Discussion

2013 ◽  
pp. 255-267
Author(s):  
Maura Valentino
Keyword(s):  
Online Courses ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Discussion Forum ◽  
Traditional Classroom ◽  
Online Discussions ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
Online Discussion Forum ◽  
The Impact

This chapter studies the impact of the facilitator on the effectiveness of an online discussion forum. The study examined, categorized, and statistically analyzed 224 discussions from eight online courses. The results demonstrated that facilitators are presented with many opportunities to increase the probability of a successful learning experience and that facilitators should be encouraged to develop new approaches to improve the quality of online discussions by leveraging the unique qualities of an online discussion environment.

scholarly journals Trainee Teachers’ Critical Thinking in an Online Discussion Forum: A Content Analysis

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irfan Naufal Umar ◽  
Noor Hazita Ahmad
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Virtual Community ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Discussion Forum ◽  
Online Forum ◽  
Teaching Practicum ◽  
Trainee Teachers ◽  
Online Discussion Forum

Purpose – The application of asynchronous mode of computermediated communication such as the online discussion forum is becoming more prevalent in our learning environment. Online forum is important for learning to take place as it allows the creation of a "virtual community of inquiry" that encourages problem solving, critical thinking, and knowledge construction. Thus, this study sought to analyse the content of trainee teachers’ discussion in an online forum, especially in terms of their critical thinking levels. An online discussion forum was created for the trainee teachers to discuss their experience and problems encountered during the teaching practicum.   Method – A total of 30 Universiti Sains Malaysia pre-service teachers who underwent 20 weeks of teaching practice in secondary schools were involved in this study. The Newman, Webb and Cochrane (1995) framework was used to analyse the students’ levels of critical thinking skills as indicated in their messages or reflections. The depth of the their critical thinking in terms of relevance, importance, novelty, accuracy, linking ideas or interpretation, justification, critical assessment, and practical utility were of interest in this study.   Findings – Throughout the 20 weeks of teaching practice, a total of 896 positive critical thinking indicators were recorded from the participants’ discussion. Their reflections focused mainly on the aspects of relevance, importance, and justification of the issues being discussed. However, the trainees hardly tried to bring outside knowledge or experience to address problems, and their input barely refl ected their width of understanding in discussing the issues. The online discussion forum, nevertheless, has provided a platform for the trainees to share and reflect their problems during the teaching practicum session. 76 Value – The paper explores the potential of an online discussion forum to be applied during teacher practice session. Based on these findings, it is recommended that our teacher training institutions integrate this technology into their curriculum.  

scholarly journals Evaluating quality in online asynchronous interactions between students and discussion facilitators

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dip Nandi ◽  
Margaret Hamilton ◽  
Shanton Chang ◽  
Sandrine Balbo
Keyword(s):  
Online Discussion ◽  
Discussion Forum ◽  
Discussion Forums ◽  
Course Content ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Online Discussion Forums ◽  
Online Discussion Forum ◽  
University Courses ◽  
Student Focus

<span>Online discussion forums have become an essential part of university courses, whether the course is conducted online, or face to face, or in mixed or blended mode. Discussion forums are considered to engage students better with the course content and encourage them to share and gain knowledge from each other. However, online engagement does not always happen automatically between students. Hence grading of discussion forum participation has been recommended to ensure quality student participation. Currently, a major focus has been put onto the better use of discussion forums, but the way in which the quality of participation can be evaluated has yet to be adequately investigated. Furthermore, evaluation of the instructor participation in a discussion forum and its impact on students and their contributions is lacking. In this paper, we report on our research into online discussion forum quality through analysis of discussion forum activities, along with student focus group meetings and instructor interviews. We have devised a set of criteria for evaluating discussion forum activities. Our results show that students depend highly on the instructor's feedback and the participation of the students can only be evaluated with reference to the moderation of the instructors.</span>

scholarly journals DON'T JUST SAY THANK YOU: EXPLORATION OF TYPES OF POSTS INSPIRING AND HINDERING DEEP CONVERSATIONS ONLINE

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Devayani Tirthali ◽  
Yumiko Murai
Keyword(s):  
Learning Community ◽  
Sequential Analysis ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Discussion Forum ◽  
Online Course ◽  
Online Discussion Forum ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Fixed Structure ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Given

In an open online discussion forum, where there is no fixed structure or a facilitator like a course forum without any assigned themes, every participant is a facilitator shaping the direction and depth of a conversation. How can we as designers then make sure it leads to an engaging learning community that learners keep coming back to beyond the given course period? This paper reports on sequential analysis of 172 posts in 32 threads and close reading of two threads from an open online discussion forum in a free open online course, specifically looking at the impact of participant actions as facilitative moves, to gain better understanding of the types of actions that lead to deeper and sustained engagement with the ideas of interest. Sequential analysis is an approach that estimates which types of sequences of posts or interactions are most likely to occur in a threaded discussion. The results showed that sharing personal experiences attracted most responses, implying that it is important to encourage participants to share questions or cases connected to their personal experiences. In addition, somewhat paradoxically, we found that posts acknowledging responses tend to conclude and close down the conversation while posts that ask diverging questions tend to attract more discussion.

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