Mid-South Instructional Technology Conference
Teaching, Learning, & Technology
The Challenge Continues
March 30-April 1, 2003
Student Recommendations for Discussions Boards: Conclusions of Student Problems
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By: David Warner |
Abstract
Course discussion boards provide for previews, ongoing discourse, summaries and tools to extend discussion beyond the classroom. They also provide opportunities for replication of in-class discussions in a virtual classroom.
Asking what students recommend for discussion board-use, in addition to comparing comments, based on delivery format is useful. Comparisons of student comments and analysis of comments from a face-to-face course with web-enhancements, a video-based, hybrid course with web-enhancements and a web-based course will be discussed.
Description
Course discussion boards provide for previews, ongoing discourse, summaries and tools to extend discussion beyond the classroom or for replication of in-class discussions in a virtual classroom.
Asking what students recommend for discussion board-use, in addition to comparing comments, based on delivery format is useful. Student concerns can be a valuable source of information for faculty. Comparisons of student comments and analyses of comments from a traditional, face-to-face course section with web-enhancements, a video-based, hybrid course section with web-enhancements and a web-based course section will be discussed.
The chosen approach, to gather student comment for comparisons, was a selection of three sections of a course to compare student input from a traditional, face-to-face course with web-enhancements, a video-based, hybrid course with web-enhancements and a web-based course, as noted above. All sections were taught by the same instructor. A general education core course, Fundamentals of Speech Communication, was chosen for the study. The course includes a unit on small group communication and problem-solving.
A variation of the Reflective Thinking Problem-Solving Process was used by student groups in order to analyze and discuss the following topic: "Student use of a course discussions board feature." The actual discussion contributions were not a graded assignment. The graded portion of the assignment consisted of an analysis of the problem-solving process, and an analysis of member roles and leadership. Grading of the contributions to the discussion question was not used, in order to avoid influencing student comment.
Comparisons of student findings for each of the five (5) stages of the problem-solving process will be presented. In addition, comparisons of the findings of each of the three (3) groups within each of the three (3) course formats will be presented.
Proceeding