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Designing and implementing online discussion forums: An Australian case study

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Jacquelin McDonald at University of Southern Queensland 
Jacquelin McDonald
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Abstract

Effective online learning requires both teachers and students to move beyond traditional face-to-face and correspondence modes and adopt strategies that take advantage of the flexibility and connectivity in the virtual or online classroom. In higher education, a common approach to connectivity is the use of online discussion forums, so the design and implementation of these forums significantly impacts on students' learning experience and outcomes. The case study used a grounded theory approach to generate insights into the critical success factors that promote student learning outcomes in online discussion forums in an Australian post-graduate online course. The paper outlines the findings and presents recommendations for the effective design of online forums.
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International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations
Volume 6 Issue 5, July 2009
Table of Contents
previous issue |next issue
Developing a framework for best practice in sustainable virtual campuses
Mark Stansfield, Thomas Connolly, Antonio Cartelli, Athanassios Jimoyiannis, Hugo Magalhaes,
Katherine Maillet
Pages: 440-459
doi>10.1504/IJNVO.2009.027390
Despite the significant investment and growth both in Europe and globally in the development of
virtual universities and virtual campuses over the last decade, there have been a number of high-
profile projects and initiatives that failed to achieve ...
Despite the significant investment and growth both in Europe and globally in the development of
virtual universities and virtual campuses over the last decade, there have been a number of high-
profile projects and initiatives that failed to achieve their intended goals. If such failures are to be
avoided in the future, then it is vital that a better understanding of best practice within virtual
universities and virtual campuses is achieved. This paper reports on the work of a European
Commission Education Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) co-financed project
'Promoting Best Practice in Virtual Campuses' (PBP-VC), which is aimed at providing a deeper
understanding of the key issues and success factors underlying the implementation of virtual
campuses. The paper will outline a tentative model of the issues underpinning best practice in
virtual campuses which covers areas that include organisational, pedagogical, technological,
student/user, financial and consolidation issues derived from an investigation into virtual
campus projects and initiatives within Europe. The project is working towards developing a
practical framework to help guide the process of creating best practice in virtual campuses, as
well as raising awareness of issues and approaches to creating sustainable virtual campuses.
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Resting in e-learning peace
Morten Flate Paulsen
Pages: 460-475
doi>10.1504/IJNVO.2009.027391
The European Megatrends project has analysed 26 major e-learning successes and ten
conspicuous e-learning initiatives which did not reach targeted goals. There is much to learn from
the many successful European e-learning initiatives, but ...
The European Megatrends project has analysed 26 major e-learning successes and ten
conspicuous e-learning initiatives which did not reach targeted goals. There is much to learn from
the many successful European e-learning initiatives, but this article focuses on what we can learn
from the ten discontinued initiatives that spent about €150M before they were closed down
after an average of four years in operation. The article presents the ten discontinued initiatives
comprising four consortia, two institutional initiatives and four governmental and political
initiatives. It includes a discussion on why they failed and concludes with seven recommendations
that are drawn from the analyses of the ten initiatives.
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Teaching and learning affectively within a virtual campus
Judith Molka-Danielsen, Bryan W. Carter, David Richardson, Bjorn Jaeger
Pages: 476-498
doi>10.1504/IJNVO.2009.027392
Working in a virtual world creates new opportunities available for both students and teachers and
introduces new challenges to their skills and resources. In particular, virtual worlds such as
Second Life (SL) offer revolutionary and innovative ...
Working in a virtual world creates new opportunities available for both students and teachers and
introduces new challenges to their skills and resources. In particular, virtual worlds such as
Second Life (SL) offer revolutionary and innovative modes for learning. These learning spaces are
referred to as Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) (Gredler, 2001; Jenkins, 2005). The guiding
principle for the adoption of new VLEs by educators is that the particular features of each new
Information and Communications Technology (ICT)-based tool should be used to provide specific
benefits to the students' learning environments. While virtual worlds like SL are visually very rich
environments where many types of stimuli and materials can be made available to students, the
question is: what 'mainstream' university campus activities may be carried out completely within
VLEs such as SL? We propose to explore this question and identify the potential to support
teacher and learner interactions and activities within a virtual campus space of SL.
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Online learning communities in the New 'U'
Brian Thoms, Nathan Garrett, Terry Ryan
Pages: 499-517
doi>10.1504/IJNVO.2009.027393
In an academic world largely dominated by instructor-facilitated learning environments (i.e.,
lecture halls and course management software), our research implements and measures the
impact of a student-owned and operated virtual learning ...
In an academic world largely dominated by instructor-facilitated learning environments (i.e.,
lecture halls and course management software), our research implements and measures the
impact of a student-owned and operated virtual learning environment. Adopting an Action Design
research methodology, we look to expand scholarships and build communities within our graduate
school setting. More specifically, our research explores the impact of a user-defined Online
Learning Community (OLC) on a group of 118 graduate students across 6 doctoral courses. Our
findings reflect positively on a number of constructs, including perceived learning, social
interaction and community and have provided our university with a proof-of-concept OLC, offering
a valid alternative to traditional Course Management Systems (CMS).
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Designing and implementing online discussion forums: an Australian case study
Jacquelin McDonald
Pages: 518-531
doi>10.1504/IJNVO.2009.027394
Effective online learning requires both teachers and students to move beyond traditional face-to-
face and correspondence modes and adopt strategies that take advantage of the flexibility and
connectivity in the virtual or online classroom. In ...
Effective online learning requires both teachers and students to move beyond traditional face-to-
face and correspondence modes and adopt strategies that take advantage of the flexibility and
connectivity in the virtual or online classroom. In higher education, a common approach to
connectivity is the use of online discussion forums, so the design and implementation of these
forums significantly impacts on students' learning experience and outcomes. The case study used
a grounded theory approach to generate insights into the critical success factors that promote
student learning outcomes in online discussion forums in an Australian post-graduate online
course. The paper outlines the findings and presents recommendations for the effective design of
online forums.
expand
Resource allocation strategies for the economic computational grid
Ahmad Al-Khasawneh, Mohammad Bsoul
Pages: 532-540
doi>10.1504/IJNVO.2009.027395
Economic scheduling needs to be considered for the grid computing environment, because it gives
an incentive for resource providers to supply their resources. Moreover, it enforces the efficient
use of resources, because the users have to pay for their ...
Economic scheduling needs to be considered for the grid computing environment, because it gives
an incentive for resource providers to supply their resources. Moreover, it enforces the efficient
use of resources, because the users have to pay for their use. Tendering is a suitable model for
grid scheduling because the users start the negotiations for finding suitable resources for
executing their jobs. Furthermore, the users specify their job requirements with their requests
and the resources reply with bids that are based on the cost of taking on the job and the
availability of their processors. In this paper, a number of entity strategies are proposed. The
entities, such as users, brokers and resources, employ tender/contract-net models to
negotiate the prices and deadlines. The broker's role is to act on behalf of the users. During the
negotiations, the entities aim to maximise their performance, which is measured by a number of
metrics.
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... In the same vein, he proposes integrating online etiquettes (i.e., netiquettes) to lessen antagonism, discord, or a defensive social climate. McDonald (2009) posits that instructors ought to explain how to use forums, as technical objects, more effectively. She argues that "while learners are familiar with a range of technologies, the use of these technologies [for learning] requires guidance" (p. ...
... Specific approaches for designing MOOC forums are practically non-existent. Verenikina et al. (2017), among others, provide useful insights for designing online forums (e.g., Abawajy & Kim, 2011;Baker, 2011;McDonald, 2009;de Lima et al., 2019). Despite their theoretical value, these insights are not specific for MOOCs nor do they provide empirical evidence of their effectiveness. ...
Pedagogical design of MOOC forums to facilitate meaningful interactions
Thesis
Full-text available
  • Dec 2023
Massive open online courses (MOOCs) emerged with the promise to disrupt higher education. Fifteen years after their emergence, in terms of performance, that promise has not been fulfilled. In MOOC discussion forums, learners seldom capitalise on the opportunities for social learning. Through four empirical studies, we investigate how MOOC discussion forums are structured and how they can be potentially designed to facilitate learner-to-learner interactions and instructional dialogue. Results show that thoughtful design can help improve MOOC forum navigation, participation, and interactions. However, the environment in which forums are embedded needs to be considered as a techno-pedagogical fabric that provides (but also constrains) opportunities for social learning.
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... However, there is a paucity of research about how instructors design online courses. Researchers have examined the design and implementation of online learning activities, such as discussion forums (Clark, 2015;McDonald, 2009), wikis (West & West, 2009), and student assessment (Anderson, 2004). Researchers have also investigated instructors' assessment of the usefulness of various components in specific courses (Kihato & Bednar, 2004). ...
Online Course Design and Development among College and University Instructors: An Analysis using Grounded Theory
Article
Full-text available
  • Jun 2018
In this study, a grounded theory approach was used to investigate the process college and university instructors undergo to design and develop online courses. Fourteen instructors who created online courses for four-year colleges and universities were interviewed about their experience designing and developing online courses. Results showed that participants begin the process with objectives and/or with existing course outlines, typically taken from online and face-to-face courses. Next, the instructors structure the course and chunk content. The instructors interviewed rarely use formal instructional design principles, but their design tasks show a striking similarity to those formalized in the ADDIE model. Student feedback (evaluation) motivated the instructors in their development efforts after initial course delivery. The study discusses practical implications and suggests opportunities for future research.
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The Creation of Theory: A Recent Application of the Grounded Theory Method
Article
  • Dec 1996
This paper outlines a particular approach to building theory that was employed in a recent doctoral research project (Pandit, 1995). Three aspects used in conjunction indicate the project's novelty: firstly, the systematic and rigorous application of the grounded theory method; secondly, the use of on-line computerised databases as a primary source of data; and, thirdly, the use of a qualitative data analysis software package to aid the process of grounded theory building.
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A review of research methods for assessing content of computer-mediated discussion forums
Article
  • Jan 2006
Computer-mediated communication (CMC) technologies are becoming increasingly important components of online educational environments (Romiszowski & Mason, 2004). The online discussion forum that is a significant component of many web-based courses is one type of CMC. Instructors and students rely on these asynchronous forums to engage one another in ways that replace face-to-face communication. The goal of such interactions is to promote critical thinking, meaningful problem solving, and knowledge construction (Kirschner, Strijbos, Kreijns, & Beers, 2004). In spite of the importance of these forums, the most common methods for assessing the content and outcomes of these forums have often been limited to frequency counts and other quantitative measures (Mason, 1992; Romiszowski & Mason, 2004). In order to assess any meaning that results from these discussions, it is necessary to perform some kind of semantic analysis of them. This article provides an overview of current methods of quantitative and qualitative research paradigms for analyzing the content of asynchronous computer-mediated discussion forums. For each analysis method we describe the research method, provide an example of a research study that used that method, describe the types of questions that this method can address, and compare the methods in terms of validity and reliability. Researchers and instructors will be able to use this analysis to become familiar with the choices available and make decisions about appropriate methods for analyzing CMC forums.
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FROM THE SAGE ON THE STAGE TO THE GUIDE ON THE SIDE: THE CHALLENGE FOR EDUCATORS TODAY
Article
This Paper presents a broad outline of what learning is, styles of learning and how people learn using different methods. The impact of school on learning is explored with the conclusion that it can do considerable harm to our learning. The difference between informa-tion and knowledge is explained. A new model of learning is presented (The Jones Model of Learning) and discussed, which applies to all age groups. Learning myths are explored and discredited. Principles of adult learning are presented, in addition to the differences between learning by adults and by younger people. Barriers to learning are discussed. The relationship between learning and creativity, and between learning and spirituality, are discussed and emphasized. Finally, the Implications for these Ideas on today's Teachers and Schools are explored together with the characteristics of Learning Environments. * Dr. Jones is currently a Visiting Professor at Assumption University, Graduate Business School in Bangkok, Thailand, where he has been teaching for the past six years. He holds degrees in Biology, International Development, and a Ph.D. in Management and Psychology, and has published books and articles in the fields of Management, Psychology, Education and ICT. Over a period of 14 years from 1987, Dr. Noel Jones worked as an International Monetary Fund staff member -responsible for Management and Organization Development, and at the World Bank where he specialized in Strategic Planning and Organizational Change. His consulting experience extends across the Private Sector, Infrastructure, Health, Education, and Environment. Noel is a co-founder and Chairman of VoxWorld Foundation. On behalf of VoxWorld, he has acted as global SPOC (special point of contact person) for six years and has travelled extensively for VoxWorld. He is a regular contributor to International Conferences on Remittances.
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We're in TITLE to Dream: Envisioning a Community of Practice, The Intraplanetary Teacher Learning Exchange
Article
  • Feb 2000
There is a pressing need to reduce the isolation and disconnectedness of preservice teacher early field experiences. Three related but separate projects, Conferencing on the Web (COW), the Caseweb, and INSITE were designed to enhance the learning of preservice teachers in introductory educational psychology classes while promoting notions of a community of practice. In the fall of 1996, the COW project started with approximately 30 preservice teachers at Indiana University discussing their early field experiences. During the following five semesters, the project evolved to include students from other universities and countries and, eventually, became known as 'The Intraplanetary Teacher Learning Exchange' (TITLE). Adding students and instructors from other countries enhanced the discussion and dialogue in COW. The role of instructors and practicing teachers as electronic mentors was also vital. At the same time, interesting cases that students generated in COW/TITLE were repurposed in a website called the Caseweb that is open to anyone in the world to use. More recently, ideas from the COW and Caseweb projects fostered the development of INSITE - a sophisticated text support tool on the Web for instructors and students of educational psychology. INSITE contains useful course resources, experiences, and activities, as well as various opportunities to globally share knowledge. With the INSITE tool, ideas related to creating a community of practice can be extended to thousands of students and hundreds of instructors each semester all using a textbook called Psychology Applied to Teaching. While describing these projects, we point to several potential advances in case- based learning and community building tools.
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Qualitative Analysis For Social Scientists
Article
  • Jun 1987
The teaching of qualitative analysis in the social sciences is rarely undertaken in a structured way. This handbook is designed to remedy that and to present students and researchers with a systematic method for interpreting qualitative data', whether derived from interviews, field notes, or documentary materials. The special emphasis of the book is on how to develop theory through qualitative analysis. The reader is provided with the tools for doing qualitative analysis, such as codes, memos, memo sequences, theoretical sampling and comparative analysis, and diagrams, all of which are abundantly illustrated by actual examples drawn from the author's own varied qualitative research and research consultations, as well as from his research seminars. Many of the procedural discussions are concluded with rules of thumb that can usefully guide the researchers' analytic operations. The difficulties that beginners encounter when doing qualitative analysis and the kinds of persistent questions they raise are also discussed, as is the problem of how to integrate analyses. In addition, there is a chapter on the teaching of qualitative analysis and the giving of useful advice during research consultations, and there is a discussion of the preparation of material for publication. The book has been written not only for sociologists but for all researchers in the social sciences and in such fields as education, public health, nursing, and administration who employ qualitative methods in their work.
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