Engaging and Effective Asynchronous Online Discussion Forums ...

Engaging and Effective Asynchronous Online Discussion Forums Jemal Abawajy1 and Tai-hoon Kim2 1

School of Information Technology, Deakin University, Victoria, Australia [email protected] 2 Department of Multimedia Engineering, Hannam University, Daejeon, Korea [email protected]

Abstract. Discussion is usually considered a powerful tool for the development of pedagogical skills such as critical thinking, collaboration and reflection. In the last few years, an online asynchronous discussion forum has become an integral part of teaching and learning in tertiary education. However, there are considerable challenges involved in designing discussion forum for learning and teaching arrangements that can support desired learning outcomes. The study analysed the factors that affect the level of the student participation in the online discussion forums with emphases on some of the critical issues that should be taken into account when designing online discussions forums that can support desired learning outcomes. We show that the course instructor roles and level of participations in the discussion forum particularly determines the overall level of discussion among the learning communities. Keywords: Student learning support, online discussion environments, Online learning, Asynchronous discussion forums.

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Introduction

A learning management system with asynchronous online discussion forums is becoming more and more pervasive in tertiary institutions. Asynchronous online discussion forum facilitates interaction beyond the constraints of time and physical classroom boundaries. It is capable of saving, arranging and presenting the discussion topics into various discussion threads, it is thus provides a key component of flexible learning. It provides a virtual space to the participants where they can ask questions regarding assessment tasks, lectures or concepts as well as discuss issues raised in class or the assigned readings. Students are able to access the online discussion forum from anywhere at any time and post messages that others can read and comment on at their convenience. As a result, asynchronous online discussion forums have increasingly become an integral part of university courses, online or otherwise, to teach and engage students. A growing body of research indicates that asynchronous online discussion forums can enhance learning outcomes. A number of studies have shown a strong positive T.-h. Kim et al. (Eds.): ASEA/DRBC/EL 2011, CCIS 257, pp. 695–705, 2011. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011

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correlation between the levels of engagement in online discussion forums and final grade performance [5]. Picciano [32] who found that students perceived greater quality and quantity of learning as a result of participating in the discussions. Meyer [27] observed that students involved in a threaded, asynchronous online discussion tend to exhibit a higher level of thinking that may not be seen in the classroom, particularly when they contribute comments that are exploratory in nature. The discussion forums offer a unique opportunity where some of the most important learning such as engagement in learning task, deeper levels of understanding, increased metacognition, increased motivation and divergent thinking can happen. The discussion forum affords students to exchange messages and network with people beyond those they would normally interact with. It promotes active thinking and interaction with others, allow more intimidated and shy students to participate [1, 12]. This would only happen if the students do take part in the discussion both as contributors and consumers to the topic at hand. Hrastinski [16] defines online learner participation as “a process of learning by taking part and maintaining relations with others. It is a complex process comprising doing, communicating, thinking, feeling and belonging, which occurs both online and offline.” Therefore, it is important to find out the extent to which students participate in the discussion forum. In this paper, we explore the purported value of the online discussion forum in light of research into factors that influence students’ engagement in online discussions. This is important as research shows that online discussion forums may not be utilized to their full potential in enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of teaching due to a lower than expected student participation rate ([14]. Current research suggests that there are a number of factors that affect the participation rate of learners in asynchronous discussion forums [3, 11]. Moreover, in order to design effective asynchronous online discussion forums, we need to know the components of successful asynchronous discussion forums. Also, understanding the nature and the determinants of effective learning, an asynchronous online discussion forum is critical because these discussions are the equivalent to the face-to-face discussions common in the traditional classroom [3]. Therefore, based on variables found in the literature that are relevant to understanding the participation patterns of students in online discussions forums, learner participation patterns were systematically analysed.

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Components of Asynchronous Discussion Forums

Although research shows that asynchronous discussion forums can achieve high levels of learning in some subjects, the online discussion forum designers and mediators must be aware of the conditions for this to occur. The role and presence of the instructor and assessing participation have emerged in the literature as being particularly important for a successful asynchronous discussion forum. In this section, we focus on the following two research questions: •

How much the course instructor participation in the discussion forum determines the overall level of discussion among the learning communities?

Engaging and Effective Asynchronous Online Discussion Forums

•

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Does assessing the discussion encourage learners to engage in the learning activity?

Woods [39] stated that both quality and quantity of interaction with the instructor and peers are much more crucial to the student success. 2.1

The Instructor Role and Presence

Every educator is interested in establishing a successful asynchronous discussion forum for his/her course. Research shows that high and consistent interaction levels amongst the students as well as between the students and their lecturers as a positive variable in developing student skills and in ensuring that they master the course content [36]. Hew et al [13] identified not understanding the need for online discussion and not knowing what to contribute to be two main factors leading to poor participation in online discussions. The instructors’ role and presence are central to the effectiveness of online learning. Instructors take on a variety of roles as a component of good teaching practice to successfully promote online discussions. The role of instructors’ support feedback in promoting and moderating discussion forum has also been identified as success factors [29]. The instructors should focus on how to get students to participate thoughtfully and frequently by guiding students, providing encouragement, motivation, and support to students. They also clarity expectations, respond promptly to student concerns and create a climate of open communication, offering summaries of the discussions and providing resources to support discussions and thus enhance participants’ learning experience. The extent in which the instructor’s participate in discussion forums is a vital component of the online learning experience as students weigh the importance and relevance of the discussion form by the instructor’s level of participation [24]. Generally, students feel they learned more from the class when they were satisfied with the perceived availability of their course instructor. Therefore, instructors must actively participate in the course to avoid the perception of being invisible or absent [4, 32]. The active involvement of instructors in the online discussion could promote increased student participation in the discussion. The presence of the lecturers in the discussion forum is commonly associated with high levels of learners’ satisfaction [19]. Although instructor participation is vital in the overall success of student learning, care must be taken to ensure that the instructors are not overwhelmed with messages. For example, McLain [26] indicates that online students attempted to contact their instructors twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week, at least every fourteen hours. This also suggests that students find it important that teachers were involved in the interaction. Although this means that teacher presence has a central role in student responsiveness and engagement in discussion [19, 18], setting limits and being explicit with students as to the availability of the instructor right from the start is very important. For practical purposes, the instructors may act as facilitators of the discussion at the start of each main topic and kept to a minimum the instructor’s interaction afterwards.

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Although many research shows that instructor presence is paramount for high level engagement in online discussion forums, there are opposing views on the level of participation of the lecturer. Vonderwell et al.’s [37] study showed mixed findings on the participation of the instructors in the discussion forums. Zhu [40] indicates that the instructor’s presence in the discussion forum may negatively affect student participation. Similarly, Gerbic [12] suggests that students take responsibility for the discussion with the absence of the instructor, “creating a democratic space.” In contrast, Lim and Cheah [30] argue for more assertive roles of instructors for more effective online discussion, such as answering queries, providing feedback, keeping the discussion focused and posting conflicting views to elicit thinking or reflection. In contrast, Oren et al. [42] suggests that a decrease in teachers’ involvement is an important factor in the development of social climate in virtual discussion groups. Social interaction developed more easily when students’ discussion postings not moderated. Although a successful discussion forum contains a good portion of socialisation, unless the discussion forum is carefully moderated it is possible that a social strain could spin out of control detracting from the learning process. The major issue for instructors is how to strike a balance between being overly active facilitator and completely absent. These studies simply assert that instructors should focus on encouraging student-to-student interaction and avoid dominating the content discussion. Therefore, the developers of the asynchronous online discussion forums should aim to make most students believe that their knowledge, understanding, and critical ability will be enhanced by getting involved in the discussion forum. Most of the time, the lecturers need to put their energy into drawing out the quiet students and encouraging more of the kind of participation they want to see in their students. 2.2

Overt Reward or Punishment System

Asynchronous online discussion forums enable collaboration and open discussion that can increase the flexibility of learning while motivating the learners. The discussion forums support student learning by enabling them to access the forum from anywhere at any time and post messages that others can read and comment on at their convenience. Postings messages to the forum will encourage learners to come up with new perspectives on the issue or topic under discussion independently. Comments on the posting of others are also important in terms of promoting critical thinking on the part of students and ensuring that they were able to appreciate and evaluate alternative perspectives. However, it is important that the instructors and moderators of the discussion forum ensure that the discussion forum is conducive to learning while supporting collaboration. Assessing the discussion is widely acknowledged as influencing student participation rate and encouraging them to engage in the learning activity. Existing study suggests that grading contributions is one cause of increased engagement of the learners in the discussion forum. Gerbic [12] suggests that learners need to be motivated to participate in online discussions, with well-planned and structured learning and assessment activities. This is supported by Vonderwell, Liang and Alder-man [37], who


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suggest that the structure of a discussion influences student participation and subsequently how they value the assessment in the online learning environment. Macdonald [21] states that with online discussions it is possible to assess individual contributions. Therefore, participation level in asynchronous discussions forums can be used as metrics to evaluate the progress of interaction and collaboration in online courses [33]. Andressen [3] indicates that “many learners need an incentive to participate,” suggesting that the degree of participation be included in the assessment. This is supported by Vonderwell, Liang and Alder-man [37] as well as Gerbic [12], who suggest that the structure of a discussion influences student participation and subsequently how they value the assessment in the online learning environment. When assessing learner contributions to the discussion forum, many aspects of student learning need to be looked at. Currently, students are simply provided with instructions at the beginning of the course for how they would be graded on the discussion. Generally, students are asked to make a minimum number of original posts as well as commenting to a posting made by other students. Instructors need to be aware not only of the specifics, deadlines, and weighting of an asynchronous discussion question or topic, but whether or not that type of topic or question is appropriate in an asynchronous environment. Also, the instructor need to be aware of the fact that in some cases, such assessment can represent an onerous task both to the instructor and the learners particularly when class sizes are large and individual discussion contributions are numerous. Deciding how to assess the quality of interactions is another important issue that the instructors need to address. There are several possible ways of determining the effectiveness of student participation in discussion forums. One way is by reading the students’ posts and categorising them according to Bloom's taxonomy to determine the learning outcomes associated with the level of discourse. An alternative approach is to utilise the content analysis model proposed by Henri [41] in which transcripts of the discussions are analysed according to four educational dimensions - interactive, social, cognitive and meta-cognitive - as well as the frequency, structure and type of on-line participation. Although many research shows that assessment of the discussion could act as a vehicle for increased participation, there are opposing research results on the level of influence. For example, Oliver [29] is critical about the usage of assessment as a means to increase students’ participation. This is because students could simply play the “game of assessment”, making postings that earned marks but rarely contributed otherwise. Moreover, students differ in their participation. Some students simply posted questions always most of which are directed to the lecturers whereas some others always gave feedbacks. Masters and Oberprieler [23] tried to promote student participation by asking questions that were important to students’ course of study and structured in a way to encourage free and open debate and allowing unhindered debate. These strategies obtained large-scale and equitable participation across the student body despite the lack of immediate assessment incentives.

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Factors Affecting Participation

Research shows that most students respond extremely positively to the use of discussion forums to aid learning and for assessment. Although the importance of participation in online discussion forums is extensive in the literature, in reality the participation rate is often mediocre at best. Many students tend to make inadequate contributions on the discussion forum and the online discussion forum designers and mediators must be aware of the factors for this to occur. Specifically, we must answer the question: “What are the major factors that could possible hinder the level of learners’ engagement in asynchronous online discussions? “ Inadequate student contribution is defined as “students making few or no postings, or students exhibiting surface-level thinking or low-level knowledge construction in online discussions.” [13] The factors that determine the level of learners’ engagement in asynchronous online discussions are many and well researched in the literature. We reviewed numerous empirical studies in order to identify the major factors that influence student contribution on discussion forums. In this section, we will analyse some of the major variables that influence the degree of the learner contribution to the discussion. 3.1

Feedback or Response Delays

Feedback enables the students to understand their weakness and adjust their learning strategies accordingly. As feedback is essential to students' learning, students normally expect to receive timely, constructive and meaningful feedback on their coursework [33]. The lack of visual and auditory cues in an asynchronous online discussion forum makes feedback in online environments even more important than in traditional classrooms [20]. Higgins, Hartley, and Skelton [15] note that feedback that is meaningful, of high quality, and timely helps students become cognitively engaged in the content under study, as well as in the learning environment in which they are studying. For some students, the delay in receiving feedback or responses to their messages is perceived to be a major problem and may lead to problems such as procrastination to participate [13]. The lack of both visual and auditory cues could also contribute to more unrestrained behaviour on the part of the participants. The use of constructive feedback that is prompt, consistent, and ongoing can act as a catalyst for increasing the quality of student discussion responses. However, this is practically impossible as it requires the instructress to be constantly available. 3.2

Gender Differences

Are there differences in online participation on the basis of gender? Although gender is considered to be the major influencing variable for participation patterns in terms of both quantity and quality [9], research results to date are not conclusive as to whether or not there are differences in online participation on the basis of gender. Wishart and Guy (2009) suggest that e-learning furnishes environment for equitable communication across genders. Some research results indicate that women are more active than their


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male counterparts in posting and reading messages online [33]. Others find no significant difference in number of postings or readings on the basis of gender [23, 29]. 3.3

Information Overload

Generally, learners especially adults have several responsibilities, such as, jobs and families. Thus, one major concern that needs to be considered in the design of the discussion forum is information overload. For example, as the number of the produced postings with variable quality increase, it becomes difficult to keep up with the postings and become difficult to decide which postings are valuable and thus worth reading from others of modest (or no) importance, and which poster should be avoided. Thus, students must invest a significant amount of time and effort to access and read the messages. In other words, increased effectiveness comes at the price of an increased workload. Another serious problem is that high levels of participation without focus or coherence creates confusion and information overload for other learners. It is important that the forum has a focus on learning and is interesting enough to attract learners into the discussion, but at the same time is not so demanding that learners are overwhelmed. In addition to making the interactions on the forum enriching and relevant, the course lecturer must also manage effectively the time that the learners spend interacting on the forum. Therefore, the instructor can provide time guidelines for each task to help students manage their time appropriately. The course instructor needs to manage the workload more effectively. 3.4

Cultural Differences

Culturally diverse class are increasingly becoming a norm. Overall, the asynchronous online discussion was perceived as a valuable learning strategy that resulted in increased confidence to interact in a collaborative online environment. Bassett [31] is contended that an asynchronous online discussion can facilitate an inclusive learning environment. Giannini-Gachago and Seleka [9] suggest that culture or membership of a specific group did not seem to influence participation patterns. According to Bassett [31], the online discussion increased ESL students’ confidence; they felt less shy and had time to think about and outline their contributions, alleviating the fear of a poorly phrased answer [31]. More recently Coldwell, Craig and Goold (2006) have found that there is little cultural impact on online activities at the undergraduate level and yet Smith, Smith, Coldwell and Murphy (2005) found that the perceptions and level of engagement of Chinese heritage students was significantly different from local students in a wholly online unit. Online learning is particularly challenging for international students and mature professionals returning to study. Previous studies found that, while many English as a second language (ESL) students lack confidence and are hesitant to participate in face-to-face discussions, these factors are alleviated in collaborative asynchronous online discussions [1, 12]. In contrast, Mazzolini & Maddison [24] found that the non-native English speakers posted and replied less often than did native English

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speakers and had a tendency to be pessimistic about how articulate they were in forums. Most of these students appear reluctant to participate in online activities due to the exposure of their written communication skills (or lack of) to the scrutiny of lecturers and peers [10]. In fact, some students seem to be intimidated in posting questions online if it is not anonymous. Note that student contributions to an online class discussion are not anonymous and therefore postings are clearly tied to a particular student. Recent anecdotal evidence suggests that, at the postgraduate level at least, international students do not engage in online activities to the same extent as local students, thus impacting negatively on their learning experience and learning outcomes.

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Discussion and Conclusion

Asynchronous online discussion has increasingly become common means to facilitate discussion between instructors and students, as well as students and students beyond the boundaries of their physical classrooms. For asynchronous online discussion forums to be used well, the discussion forum designers and lecturers should be aware of some of the main factors that influence student participation. In this paper, we reviewed numerous empirical studies in order to identify the factors leading to few or no postings, or students exhibiting surface-level thinking or low-level knowledge construction in online discussions. Several studies examined factors that affect learner participation in online asynchronous discussion forums [6]. Past studies which investigated interaction in asynchronous online discussion found that limited student interaction is a persistent and wide-spread problem [14, 25]. Current research suggests that there are several key variables that are relevant to understanding the participation patterns of students in online discussions forums [3, 11]. Since there is no conclusive evidence as to the level of influences of these variables, further research on the impact of these variables on the asynchronous online discussion is needed. The participation of the instructors in the discussion forum is the most widely discussed factor in successful asynchronous discussion forums. Although the instructors need to be “seen” in order to be perceived by their students as present in the course just as do face-to-face course instructors [4], depending on the number of the students and the quantity of the discussion messages, one can draw a conclusion that the lecturers should strike a balance between being overly active and completely absent. They should ask more questions than they give answers, and put the bulk of their energy into drawing out the quiet students and encouraging more of the kind of participation they want to see. Also, it is very important that the instructors set specific limits and be explicit with the students from the very beginning. Although some of the researchers such as Andresen [3] and Gerbic [11] have examined some of the factors that influence learner participation in the discussion forums, the literature on this topic is largely inconclusive. We believe that exiting research findings are based on a single course and small-scale studies. Therefore, one area of further studies is examining more than one course participation to quantify the factors affecting participation. Also, the research discussed in the literature does not


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really indicate the type of asynchronous discussion forum the course was taught. An implication for instructors is to provide several types of asynchronous communication so that appropriate means are available for different learning activities. The combination of the different types of discussion forum supports several ways for learners and teachers to exchange information, collaborate on work, and get to know each other. The relationship between participation and interaction and learning outcomes is a complex phenomenon and further research is needed to develop a greater understanding of the nature of the relationship. Another direction of future study is to provide unambiguous evidence that investment in the participation of the discussions forum will indeed ‘pay-off’ in terms of improved student performance in the subject. Exiting literatures generally give cursory attention to the link between the various components of the curriculum. For instance, although many exiting forums certainly integrated learning and assessment activities in achieving the learning outcomes [40], but further research is required to explore whether the linkage between the various learning and assessment components is fully realized. Research is also needed to develop a greater understanding of the nature of online collaboration especially in the pretense of cross-culture variables; in particular, the concept of inclusion and its relationship to collaboration. There is a need for investigating how the asynchronous online discussion forum is impacting the learning experience of cohorts that include more linguistically and culturally diverse student populations, particularly in the achievement of graduate attributes.

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