What to expect, and how to improve online discussion forums: the instructors’ perspective

Dhanielly P.R. de Lima; Marco A. Gerosa; Tayana U. Conte; José Francisco José

doi:10.1186/s13174-019-0120-0

What to expect, and how to improve online discussion forums: the instructors’ perspective

Dhanielly P.R. de Lima, Marco A. Gerosa, Tayana U. Conte, José Francisco José

Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems, School of

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

Online discussion forums are asynchronous communication tools that are widely used in Learning Management Systems. However, instructors and students face various difficulties, and instructors lack a guide on what strategies they can use to achieve a more participatory forum environment. This work aims to identify benefits and difficulties of using online discussion forums from the instructors’ point of view, and to provide a list of strategies and improvements that can mitigate the challenges and lead to a more participatory forum. We used coding procedures to analyze data collected through semi-structured interviews. The results of our exploratory analysis are relevant to the distance learning community and can inform instructors, developers, and researchers to help them improve the quality of mediation and use of forums.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	22
Journal	Journal of Internet Services and Applications
Volume	10
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1186/s13174-019-0120-0
State	Published - Dec 1 2019

Keywords

Barriers
Benefits
Difficulties
Empirical study
Hurdles
Instructors
LMS
Mediators
Online discussion forum
Strategies

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Computer Science Applications
Computer Networks and Communications

Access to Document

10.1186/s13174-019-0120-0

Cite this

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title = "What to expect, and how to improve online discussion forums: the instructors{\textquoteright} perspective",

abstract = "Online discussion forums are asynchronous communication tools that are widely used in Learning Management Systems. However, instructors and students face various difficulties, and instructors lack a guide on what strategies they can use to achieve a more participatory forum environment. This work aims to identify benefits and difficulties of using online discussion forums from the instructors{\textquoteright} point of view, and to provide a list of strategies and improvements that can mitigate the challenges and lead to a more participatory forum. We used coding procedures to analyze data collected through semi-structured interviews. The results of our exploratory analysis are relevant to the distance learning community and can inform instructors, developers, and researchers to help them improve the quality of mediation and use of forums.",

keywords = "Barriers, Benefits, Difficulties, Empirical study, Hurdles, Instructors, LMS, Mediators, Online discussion forum, Strategies",

author = "{de Lima}, {Dhanielly P.R.} and Gerosa, {Marco A.} and Conte, {Tayana U.} and Jos{\'e}, {Jos{\'e} Francisco}",

note = "Funding Information: This research partially funded by DS/CAPES 2015 and FAPEAM through edital 009/2017. Tayana Conte thanks the financial support granted by CNPq through process number 311494/2017–0. Acknowledgements Funding Information: We would like to thank the people who agreed to participate in the interviews and take the time to answer our questions and share their experiences in the online educational forums. We thank CAPES for the financial support granted to the work, the FAPEAM, and the two involved universities: UFAM and NAU. Funding Information: Finally, the work of Liu et al. [] examines how participants in a MOOC interact in the course discussion forum and use social media tools to support the learning experience. The tendency to use social media is also supported by the NMC Horizon Report []. Their results pointed out that poor forum interface design affects students{\textquoteright} participation and perception of utility. Some participants considered peer learning in forums useless due to poor quality or low feedback response. Other works that present difficulties in the forums are Ulrich and Nedelcu [], Poquet and Dawson [], Mora et al. [], Lima et al. [] and Bratitsis and Dimitracopoulou []. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019, The Author(s).",

year = "2019",

month = dec,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1186/s13174-019-0120-0",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "10",

journal = "Journal of Internet Services and Applications",

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AU - Gerosa, Marco A.

AU - Conte, Tayana U.

AU - José, José Francisco

N1 - Funding Information: This research partially funded by DS/CAPES 2015 and FAPEAM through edital 009/2017. Tayana Conte thanks the financial support granted by CNPq through process number 311494/2017–0. Acknowledgements Funding Information: We would like to thank the people who agreed to participate in the interviews and take the time to answer our questions and share their experiences in the online educational forums. We thank CAPES for the financial support granted to the work, the FAPEAM, and the two involved universities: UFAM and NAU. Funding Information: Finally, the work of Liu et al. [] examines how participants in a MOOC interact in the course discussion forum and use social media tools to support the learning experience. The tendency to use social media is also supported by the NMC Horizon Report []. Their results pointed out that poor forum interface design affects students’ participation and perception of utility. Some participants considered peer learning in forums useless due to poor quality or low feedback response. Other works that present difficulties in the forums are Ulrich and Nedelcu [], Poquet and Dawson [], Mora et al. [], Lima et al. [] and Bratitsis and Dimitracopoulou []. Publisher Copyright: © 2019, The Author(s).

PY - 2019/12/1

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N2 - Online discussion forums are asynchronous communication tools that are widely used in Learning Management Systems. However, instructors and students face various difficulties, and instructors lack a guide on what strategies they can use to achieve a more participatory forum environment. This work aims to identify benefits and difficulties of using online discussion forums from the instructors’ point of view, and to provide a list of strategies and improvements that can mitigate the challenges and lead to a more participatory forum. We used coding procedures to analyze data collected through semi-structured interviews. The results of our exploratory analysis are relevant to the distance learning community and can inform instructors, developers, and researchers to help them improve the quality of mediation and use of forums.

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What to expect, and how to improve online discussion forums: the instructors’ perspective

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