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