Learning from learners: How online discussions become “dead spaces”

Anna Armstrong, Senior Learning Designer at the University of London, takes a critical look at why an online learner described discussion forums as a 'dead space' in their learning. In this post originally published here, Anna discusses what can be done to prevent this sort of response.

Our online learners told us that their discussion forms were “dead spaces” and had “no value”. In this post I will explore how this may have happened and ask if there is anything we can do about it. 

What do we mean by a discussion forum activity? 

• asynchronous: takes places over a set period of time with students contributing at the best time for them
• purposeful: clearly structured and related to the learning outcomes
• student led: students contribute, reading and replying to each other’s posts
• tutor facilitated: online tutor monitors forum and comments minimally, correcting if misunderstandings arise, summarising occasionally

Students created their own thriving digital community 

Let’s start with a success story: Our BSc Computer Science students created their own thriving digital community using the online communication platform, Slack. Our student rep showed us how they had created their own space where hundreds of participants from all over the world engaged in an informal social community organised by the learners themselves with no reliance on the tutor. They set up dozens of threads on various topics like job opportunities, memes, first cohort, official. It became an essential and core aspect of their study: a space to ask questions, share resources, and have fun. They established strong bonds and felt able to express vulnerability in this environment. Students clearly demonstrated an appetite for connecting with peers on a digital asynchronous platform.

Image of the rich Slack interface

Academic discussion forums were “dead spaces” 

This success story shows what students can do online when they have motivation and purpose, so why did this not transfer into the online forums that we provided for learning within our programmes? One of our strongest students described their academic forums as “dead spaces”, which were devoid of interest and value with few learner contributions. Here’s an example:

Image of a forum showing students have viewed but not contributed to the forum

What went wrong?  

These students have disengaged with learning through discussions and are therefore missing the opportunity to engage critically with their course material and to become experts in their field. Do students even realise? Were we as educators responsible?  

A discussion with our students revealed why the academic forums failed.  

1. Students expected to be ‘taught’: There’s a mismatch between student expectations and reality. Our online programmes include didactic teaching elements but have an emphasis on practising and applying new concepts, combined with developing understanding through written discussions. This is an unfamiliar approach for most learners and our time-poor students prioritised and gave value to familiar content-led tasks such as reading and watching lectures. 

2. Students expected a one-to-one with the tutor in the forums: Believing that they would receive a personal reply to their posts from the tutor, students tended not to reply to each other. They didn’t see the value in peer-to-peer communication for learning.  

3. Students lacked the skills or confidence to contribute: It’s a daunting prospect to post your response to an academic question in writing with all eyes on your post. Early activities were challenging and discouraged students from continuing. 

4. Students were not interested in the activities: On reflection, some forums were lacking purpose and often there were too many.  

5. Students were not heard: Some brave students did dip their toe in the waters of the earlier forums. Their posts were met with silence and unsurprisingly they quickly disengaged from all future discussion tasks.  

6. Forum tasks require effort and can feel difficult:   Composing a coherent well-informed response to an academic question takes time and is difficult. We know that when students are challenged, they perceive that they are not learning (Carpenter et al., 2020), and it’s easier to watch a video or read a book and underline some words – the sense of learning is greater.  

7. The discussion interface is problematic: In Coursera, students cannot see what others have posted before they post their contribution. This is a huge hurdle. It’s like speaking in a room full of people where you can see and hear no one. A discussion is about reading and responding to each other. I don’t blame students at all for not wanting to speak up.  

So, should we just ditch discussion forums? 

As we can see, online discussion-based activities are challenging. It takes a deliberate and well-informed effort to scaffold and structure activities, and students need a lot of support to do well in them. So why bother? Is it worth the effort?  

Many voices celebrate the value of discussion-based learning in online programmes when included as part of a range of learning activities, for example,  

• Garrison, Anderson & Archer’s Community of Inquiry Framework 
• Gilly Salmon’s work on E-tivities 
• Diana Laurillard’s Conversational Framework 

A valuable and essential part of learning online 

It’s not only academics and teachers who think discussion forums are a rich learning opportunity. My own experience as a postgraduate online learner confirms to me that it really is worth the effort. I studied online for three years. It was lonely and isolating. The forums were the only way to explore the academic material with other people; through discussions I could express my emerging understanding and adjust it by reading my peers’ perspectives. Forums gave me a way to develop critical thinking and establish my academic voice.  

I found it liberating and egalitarian: everyone had the same opportunity to be heard.  It was also difficult and frustrating at times, as is any good learning. But the act of thinking and writing regularly in small chunks, and getting regular feedback was rewarding and motivating. 

So, if there is value in learning through discussing ideas, we owe it to our learners to help them to make it work. We need to understand what made the student communities successful, and what made the academic forums fail.  

What do students need to learn through forums? 

Our students engaged with their social forum with energy and enthusiasm. By examining what made that space work, can we harness and direct that energy into academic study?

Why did Slack work well?	How can we apply that to educational forums?
It was a safe space where students felt confident to contribute	Outline what is expected and how to compose a post, for example Engaging in online discussions: Top 10 tips for students  Help learners develop academic writing skills and confidence to express ideas in writing by scaffolding through simple low-key activities with plenty of early encouragement and feedback.  Ensure the interface allows students to read previous contributions before they post.
It was useful for learning   Students could find the information they need, and got help promptly when they asked	Provide rationale: Explain the benefits of learning through forums in an online programme   Set expectations: Acknowledge that these tasks are challenging and can feel difficult. Invite students to respond to each other using a specified structure. Tutor can model the type of response required.  Invite students to take part: Give a clear purpose with instructions on how and why to take part. Gilly Salmon’s approach The e-tivity invitation is good.
Students connected with their peers and supported one another  They did this naturally – they wanted to form a community.	Set expectations: Outline student and tutor role (Kwon, 2021) – forums are a space for student-to-student dialogue where the tutor is a coach and facilitator, weaving, summarising and guiding. Tutor can teach this through early forum feedback.   Provide task instructions which include how to respond to peers. Make the tasks manageable in the study time available and give enough time for the discussion to develop as learners join asynchronously throughout the week.
Students developed and expressed an online identity Some were able to be more themselves online than they could be in their own real-life communities.	Outline roles: tutor starts, students respond and interact with each other.    Design a series of ice breaker activities focussed on allowing the cohort to get to know each other, including webinars to build a successful community of inquiry.
Students had agency They ran their own space and could adapt its use and structure to their own needs.	Remember that students take time to grow and develop academic confidence. Design approaches appropriately to support this growth. See Salmon’s Five Stage Model and Conrad & Donaldson’s Phases of engagement in the online classroom   Give students permission to lead their own spaces – these are student led forums where there is no need to wait for a tutor to contribute.    Ensure the tutor is present and students feel supported by but not reliant on their presence.
It was fun!   Students could easily share memes, emojis, videos, URLs. They set up silly spaces as well as serious ones.	Probably the most important point! Challenge students to complete interesting relevant tasks and change the format of the discussion activities, for example:  – free students form their academic inhibitions by assigning them a specific stance in an argument  – respond to a controversial stance in a debate  – research and report back on findings from their own country or town  – provide a choice of questions to respond to  – ask them to post more than just words – voice, image and video are all possible

Conclusion 

We have seen that, given the right conditions, students throw themselves into online communication activities and enjoy them. But they need to be guided and they need to understand how to learn in this new and unfamiliar environment. Discussion forums don’t just happen by themselves, they need to be well designed and well scaffolded, purposeful and appropriate. As educators this is our responsibility – this is a valuable reminder that we are teaching real people who need real support to learn and do well. 

What do you think? What’s your experience of learning online and developing a strong peer community of inquiry? 

A visit to Google’s Accessibility Discovery Centre

Kathryn Drumm, Educational Technologist at City, University of London, shares her experiences of visiting Google's Accessibility Discover Centre.

Just before Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2024, I was part of a group from City who visited Google’s Accessibility Discovery Centre in the heart of London’s Kings Cross.

The group was made up of colleagues from across City, all of whom have an interest in digital accessibility. There were staff from the Library, the EDI team, academic staff from the HCID (Human-Computer Interaction Department), Marketing, the ERES from IT and, of course, the Digital Education Team. If nothing else, it was great to see how many people are committed to expanding awareness of digital accessibility across the university.

We were greeted by Hans (to the far right in the group photograph) and taken up to the ADC to meet with Praneeth, our other host for the day. Praneeth explained that Google has three ADCs across the world, and their aim is to collaborate with people outside of Google, especially members of the disability community, to make Google’s services accessible for all.

The ADC sign, behind Praneeth in the group photo, was an interesting lesson in accessibility. It was created as decoration for the room, but was also meant to be accessible via touch to those with vision loss. However, the feedback from users was that the sign was too large for anyone to interact with, so a smaller, more user-friendly version was created and installed next to it. It’s a reminder that while you can have good intentions, you always need to test your proposed solution with the intended users.

Speaking of testing, to further develop their products and services, Google invite testers to come to the ADC where take part in talk-aloud, task-based tests and use tools such as eye tracking software to get feedback. At the moment, they have to carry out this testing at Google’s London HQ, but they intend to create a virtual lab for those who can’t travel.

We then saw their accessible gaming arcade, the result of their work with the Manchester charity Everyone Can. Here games could be controlled through pressure switches, wobble switches or via eye-tracking. Hans impressed us all by only crashing his virtual car a few times when he raced it around the track using only his eyes.

We then looked in more detail at some of the accessibility tools aimed at those with sight or hearing loss.

The huge leaps in creating live captions was of particular interest to me, as I was a subtitler in a previous life, and remember how it used to take 10 hours to create 20 minutes of subtitles. Now, we are used to captions being generated automatically as a conversation takes place or a video plays. We also saw how Google Nests could be programmed to trigger different coloured lights to alert d/Deaf users to specific sounds, such as a red light for the doorbell or a blue light for a baby crying.

For those with sight loss, we saw specialised Braille displays. But Praneeth also demonstrated how improvements to Pixel phones can guide users via vibrations to frame objects in the camera. Not only does this allow people to take their best selfie, it also means they can centre the camera on labels or documents. The phone then recognises the text and can read it out. So it would be possible to scan a tin in your cupboard and work out if it contains tomato soup or pineapple.

Praneeth also showed us accessibility features into Android phones such action blocks which allow you to condense common multi-stage tasks into one action represented by an icon on the phone’s home screen. For example, calling a loved one can be represented by their photo, meaning that those who struggle with complicated processes for whatever reason can now complete them with one tap.

I was saying to a colleague later that while the visit was interesting, I had felt that I’d seen a lot of the technologies or similar versions before. But thinking about this further, I realised that rather than feeling disappointed that my mind wasn’t blown by some new technology, I should see it as a testament to how pervasive many accessibility tools are now. We are no longer astounded by automatically generated subtitles, but only notice where they go wrong. We expect the miniature computers in our pockets to read labels or translate conversations. And a centralised home hub, controlled through our voices, turning our lights on, playing us music or ordering our groceries online is no longer the wild imaginings of sci-fi but the everyday. It reinforces the idea that we should always be aiming towards the point where we just assume that technology will be accessible to everyone, where we’re not having to raise awareness through special weeks and that it stops being extraordinary and is instead the ordinary.

Digital Accessibility at SOAS

 

Today, we're diving into an insightful presentation by Sultan Wadud, the Learning Technology Manager at SOAS, who shared at the Spring 2024 Moodle User Group Greater London (MUGGL) event hosted at King's College how the team has worked to introduce Digital Accessibility.

 
In his presentation, Wadud sheds light on the importance of digital accessibility, emphasising its role in ensuring that content, websites, and applications are usable by everyone, including individuals with disabilities. He also touches upon how digital accessibility contributes to compliance and standards, making online content more inclusive.
 
One of the highlights of Wadud's presentation is the introduction of Ally, a powerful tool aimed at enhancing accessibility in digital course content. He elaborates on how Ally scans content within the LMS, generates alternative formats, provides insightful analytics, and offers feedback to improve accessibility - truly a game-changer in the realm of digital accessibility.
 
However, Wadud doesn't shy away from discussing the challenges the team encountered along the way, including delays in contract negotiation, technical hurdles, and limited academic engagement. Despite these obstacles, he also shares some notable achievements, such as creating online guidance, conducting workshops, establishing a working group, and notably improving the institution's overall accessibility score.
 
Looking ahead, Wadud outlines the team’s plans, which include renewing the contract for Ally, ramping up training and awareness initiatives, collaborating with specific departments, producing more concise educational videos, and striving to reach and exceed the Ally sector average of a 78% accessibility score.
 
Link to recording:
https://soas.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=217a7127-6e73-45cb-88b7-b16b00cbe837

Distance Learners share their experiences of decolonisation

The Bloomsbury Learning Exchange (BLE) joined forces again with the Centre for Online and Distance Education (CODE) and the London International Development Centre (LIDC) to extend the conversation around the decolonisation of digital education, which started last year with our first joint webinar. On 17th April, our follow-up webinar, Decolonising Digital Education – Lessons from Distance Learners, focused on distance and online education, and specifically on the experiences of remote learners. We were delighted to convene a panel comprising three students who had recently completed or were currently pursuing online courses offered by the University of London. What followed was a lively and engaging panel discussion, chaired by CODE Fellow and vice-principal for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) at the Royal Veterinary College, Dr Christine Thuranira-McKeever, with thought-provoking questions posed by the audience.

Our student panelists each introduced themselves and presented the ways in which they have experienced decolonisation in respect to technologies used to deliver online courses. Conrad Francis is an Australian Sri-Lankan dual Olympian (Sydney 2000, Athens 2004) who has coached across the world, working in schools and universities in countries including China, Indonesia, Japan and South Korea. Conrad completed a PGCE in International Sports Management at the University of London in 2022 and provided a truly international perspective. Conrad stated that student empowerment lies at the heart of decolonising education. He encouraged students to question what they already know and what they are learning.

Dr Swati Aggarwal holds a doctorate in AI and has extensive experience in research and teaching in India. Moving to a teaching position in Norway in 2023, she completed the online Postgraduate Certificate Learning and Teaching in Higher Education provided by the University of London. As an educator herself, Swati drew on her experiences of decolonisation both in delivering and being a recipient of learning. She exposed the need to diversify the voices that shape education itself to reflect the multi-cultural world.

Finally, Sanjeeva Singh, an Olympian Archer, shared his experiences of working towards a Post Graduate Certificate in International Sports Management at the University of London whilst studying at a distance in India. Shaped by his distance learning experience, Sanjeeva argued that decolonisation in education comes down to three key components: inclusivity, diversity and innovativeness. He believes that learning material should be as diverse as the students accessing them.

The audience posed many interesting questions regarding access to digital technology, differences in cultures, and how institutions can ensure inclusivity and promote diversity to prevent prejudice and bias towards Western approaches to learning and teaching.

Dr Linda Amrane-Cooper (Director of the University’s Postgraduate Certificate Learning and Teaching in Higher Education) responded to the need to acknowledge sensitivities and apply feedback from learners in order to ‘decolonise’ the professional framework in which educational providers must work. Taking on board these lived experiences can only improve the quality of the courses that are delivered. As Elizabeth Charles (Assistant Director of Library Services at Birkbeck) reported, the panelists’ “different perspectives were a wonderful cross-section of learning from theory and applying to their individual loci and how enriched they felt as a result of this. Linda’s contribution was also very welcome; that level of engagement of acknowledging where the programme or institution is located and starting from, given the validation requirements, yet not shying away from the need to turn that critical lens on the epistemological pillars that support the programme”.

You can watch a recording of the event here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=af5w1eRGQFo

AI for the Overwhelmed: a webinar

 

Report on the BLE webinar held on 16th April 2024

This session served as a supportive introduction to GenAI and what it can do in the context of higher education. It was purposefully not recorded in order to offer attendees a safe space to find out what GenAI is, to share experiences and to feely ask the questions they were too afraid to ask for fear of looking ignorant. Over 80 people registered for the webinar, which in itself spoke volumes. Attendees represented a broad range of staffing areas including teaching, research, course administration, HR, library, IT and digital education. So many colleagues wanting to gain a better understanding - and to discover what others know/are doing. We are, after all, human and not machine. So many of us are feeling overwhelmed by AI in different ways, from what it is to how to help others.

CoPilot's response to the query 'What does GenAI mean?'

I opened the session with a personal explanation of why I had organised the event. And here it is again in a nutshell: Upon returning from parental leave at the start of February 2024, the emergence (or crash-landing) of GenAI was being discussed everywhere – e.g. the impact it was having on learning, teaching and particularly assessment. There was a constant stream of events being organised, courses to take, articles to read, policies to develop - I felt I was very far behind everyone else and I panicked that I had too much catching up to do. Being out of my depth in the world of technology was something I hadn’t experienced before – I was drowning in a sea of information and discourse, and I didn’t know where to start. I was overwhelmed. But the more I spoke to learned colleagues, the more I realised that everyone was feeling the same. I hadn’t really fallen behind – the development and pace of AI is so fast-changing, it is hard to keep up - and many people still haven’t had the chance fully engaged with it at all. I wanted to connect with others feeling the same as me and to start to investigate how the BLE could support them (us).

Deborah Grange, Head of Student Learning Development at Birkbeck, has been running a regular workshop specifically for students since the start of this calendar year. Interestingly, staff have also been attending. I knew she was the person I needed to provide a gentle introduction to GenAI. Deborah ran through the most commonly-used GenAI tools (or Large Language Models, LLMs) that are available. She explained in simple terms how they work and why we need to use cautionary behaviour when using them. AI outputs are only as good as the data that is fed in; the tool doesn't 'think' and it can offer incorrect yet convincing-looking responses ('hallucinations'). Deborah demonstrated Microsoft's CoPilot (based on GPT-4, the same 'engine' that Chat GPT uses) and Google's Gemini by entering a query and comparing the results. 

From this 'basics of AI' presentation, I then invited Sultan Wadud, Learning Technology Manager at SOAS, to share how he uses AI in his every day work. Wadud's talk presented several advanced examples of AI usage from generating images to convey concepts for presentation slides to helping him make a start on writing policies and emails.

Throughout the session, attendees contributed to this Padlet board to share their motivations for attending the session, examples of their use of GenAI tools and then what the BLE can do next. The BLE Team will be using both this and the chat contributions made in the session to inform our planning. Suggestions for follow-ups so far include regular online 'show and tells with AI' to share what people are doing and a hands-on workshop to try out tools for those who are not experienced. Please contact us here if you would like to make a suggestion.

In conclusion, like the web browser, which changed the face of education forever, GenAI is already doing the same - and it is here to stay (well, evolve), We can’t avoid it – we have to embrace it, or at least acknowledge and work with it.

If you work for one of the BLE partner institutions*, join our mailing list here to be the first to find out about all our events and activities:
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* Birkbeck, LSHTM, RVC, SOAS, UCL and the University of London