Have you ever experienced seenzoning or just ignoring someone’s prompt or question posted online for a class? Or maybe secretly lurking the comments section waiting for the right time or inspiration to reply? Or how about writing a reply just to get it over with?
With technology continuously being integrated into learning, most of you have probably experienced something like this while trying to participate in an online discussion forum for class. For some, online discussions served as a fun activity—where students are free to talk about something without the pressure of a dozen other faces staring at you while you try to organize your thoughts. But for others, like me, online discussion forums may have only seemed like a heavy burden where students either forced themselves to participate, ignored the discussion altogether, or worse (when done on Facebook) flooded everyone with like and love reacts in place of any actual feedback. This is why I endeavored to find out how professors ensure that students are engaged during online discussion forums. But before that, let’s get into what online discussion forums are and why it has been on the rise in terms of learning activities.
The rundown on online discussion forums
An online discussion forum is a web-based communication tool or learning activity that allows students and teachers alike to post and reply to messages asynchronously [1]. Basically, what this means is that when professors post a prompt online for students to react to, responses do not have to be in real time and discussions will last for a longer time which is great for students like me who
need time to mull over their answers. According to Cornell University’s Center for Teaching Innovation (CTI) [2], online discussion forums ability to give students more time generate more thoughtful answers as a result. One study [3] even lists the promotion of high level cognitive skills such as reasoning and argumentation as one of the effects of online discussions. CTI also emphasizes that a broader range of students are able to express their thoughts in online discussion forums compared to the limited duration of one class. So the classmate you’ve never seen recite may just be the first one to comment online. Another study [4] has also found that students who participated in online discussion forums enjoyed their experience and felt more relaxed when answering as compared to face-to-face in-classroom discussions. After interviewing two professors from Ateneo de Manila University and University of the Philippines- Diliman, they also found that online discussion forums were useful to them and the classes they taught in different ways. First, as an alternative space for discussion and second, as a tool to moderate and engage all students in a large class.
This all seems great but the catch is there are downsides to this new teaching tool. In recent research [5], some weaknesses found when utilizing online discussions include the tendency for only a small number of students to dominate discussion as well as an overwhelming amount of messages or comments in one post, both of which lead to the demotivation of other students to participate in such online activities. Cases like this mirror our experiences in real life. However, studies [11] have shown that these weaknesses can be remedied through student engagement.
The key to success: Student engagement
Student engagement is generally seen as the behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement to different learning activities [6]. This means that students are “constructive, enthusiastic, willing, emotionally positive, and cognitively focused” in class or during class-related activities [7]. In fact, according to a review of literature on student engagement “a sound body of literature has established robust correlations between student involvement […] and positive outcomes of student success and development” [8]. Student engagement is important to achieve in online discussion forums in particular as the activity depends on the level of student participation and engagement especially when responding to the prompt and to their classmates. Otherwise, the tool will prove to be ineffective.
Ensuring student engagement
As mentioned, student engagement is not just about one but several factors that help students become more involved in learning activities. The following are a few key points that is most commonly considered when creating and utilizing online discussion forums. These points that help ensure student engagement are sourced from the professors interviewed who gave their own personal know-how as well asdifferent research papers found online:
1. Critical on Content
The content of the post is one of the more obvious important parts of a good online discussion forum. Brown University’s Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning [9] emphasizes how important it is to focus on the post content or pr
ompt when beginning to design an online discussion forum. The professors who have utilized online discussion forums emphasized four points they always consider:
- Provide different points of views: When different perspectives are given, discussion increases and students are forced to weigh in on their thoughts regarding which perspectives they prefer or agree with.
- Entertaining: If students areasked to read an article or watch a video, it must be engaging and fun so that more will be motivated to participate. Most importantly, the lengthiness of the video or read should be an important consideration when choosing what students need to react to because longer prompts tend to become dragging and lose the interest and attention of students.
- Authoritative: The authors or creators of the media (videos, articles, etc) posted are from credible sources of information and experts in their fields.
- Relatable: If only questions and online material will be given now, the question should be interesting and is the kind that might possibly come up often in the students’ everyday conversations in order to inspire discussion.
Thorough curation and consideration of content before posting is essential for everyone in determining whether the online discussion forum will become a success or a flop.
2. Aiming for Accessibility
One common factor for both professors interviewed is that they did not use their respective universi
ty’s online platform for the online forum. Usually, common social media sites were utilized because it is the most accessible for students and it is the one that is being opened by them the most. According to them, many students reported that traditional discussion sites were often slow and difficult to open compared to traditional social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, or other blogging sites. This is why they opted to use these more popular sites instead as it would encourage students to open the discussion boards or posts more. Studies show [10] that students who were less comfortable with technology and the kind of technology-based education used tended to have lower satisfaction rates in classes utilizing online discussions compared to those who were comfortable with the type of technology used.
3. Integrating Information
It is also important to include what is discussed online into classroom discussion. Besides making sure that the subject matter is always related to the lessons, tests and class recitation regarding the topics in online discussions are some of the ways used to ensure that the class will read the material in the forum.
4. Finding Fixes and being Flexible
Lastly, moderators and researchers on online discussion forums emphasize adapting the way they administer online discussion forums based on the preference and patterns of their class. For example, studies [10] where online discussion forums were conducted indicate that an approaching deadline significantly increased the amount of replies to a post while decreasing the number of hits or the amount of times students read other student replies before commenting. Another example, for large classes, professors would require students to discuss by group and then have one representative from the group comment on what they have discussed to limit answers. Professors should be able to discern what they would like to maintain in their own online discussion forums depending on the subject matter and attitudes presented by students.
Online discussion forums: Unlocked
Remember a few of these key points and the next time you experience or facilitate an online discussion forum, you can ask yourself some new questions. Have you experienced getting excited to replying prompts and posts? Have you tried engaging others in discussions about their insights? Did you enjoy participating in your online discussion forum?
Online discussion forums present great possibilities for teaching and instruction as they don’t just force us to extend our learning to outside the classroom but also provide avenues for a more diverse set of students to have their voices heard in class. Hopefully, as all of us become more aware of the different factors that go into an online discussion forum, we will be able to utilize and integrate this technological learning activity to its fullest potential.—Gabee Paras
et cetera 
I agree! I think an online discussion forum is a good way for students like me to share my thoughts without feeling shy at all. I also see insights from my classmates that would usually never come up in a regular classroom setting
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