Teaching and Learning Using Internet On-line Courses - Return to Main Menu

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Web Discussion Board for asynchronous discussion

Teaching and learning, whether in the classroom or on-line, needs to be stimulated and promoted by group collaboration and discussion among students and students/professor. If the World Wide Web is just used to disseminate materials, an on-line course is limited, isolated, and lacks the interaction necessary for students to learn from one another. Consequently, an on-line course designer must look at methods to ensure that educational discussion and learning is facilitated.

Communication in On-line courses may take the following forms:

1. Asynchronous communication:
Email, list serves, and a web based discussion board for "any time" discussions

2. Synchronous communication:
Conferencing software (chat rooms), and MOO's (Multi-user Object Oriented) for multi-party "same time" on-line discussions. Students are able to participate in class discussions with peers and the professor.

Since the normal lecture/discussion in a traditional classroom is missing, an On-line course must involve the students in discussion of content and issues. Students are able to ask more questions that probably would not have been asked in class. They are able to understand different points of view. Dispersed students are enabled to communicate interactively across time zones and borders.

Web Discussion Board for asynchronous discussion:

An Internet web discussion board enables students/faculty to post messages/discussions directly onto the internet with no need for email. There are many commercial, shareware, and free software programs that are used as discussion boards. An example of a web discussion board is Discus, a freeware program from Hope College, Michigan, USA (1) and implemented at Elmhurst College (2). About a third of thway through the term, Discus became corrupted, the computer services people never brought it back on line. Therefore another web discussion backup board was brought into use, although with limited functionality (3). These discussion boards allow a versatile set up of topics, monitoring, use various formats, equations, graphics, and reference URL's.

Good discussion board software facilitates "threaded" discussions where all similar messages on the same topic are grouped. All messages are visible or at least available for easy access under a particular topic. Follow up responses by faculty and students are easily facilitated. Unlike email, a discussion board, preserves and maintains all of the messages in a public forum. The instructor need answer a question only once and post it on the discussion board for all students to benefit.

The instructor should pose a mix of questions including open-ended, opinion based, and specific application. Two to three questions per week plus other graded assignments may be optimal. The instructor should be careful about giving highly critical public assessments of on-line comments, but rather give behind the scenes feedback through email. The instructor should use feedback comments to motivate, stimulate, gently prod, or be generally encouraging and non judgmental.

1. Web Discussion Board - Discus Freeware program from Hope College, Michigan, USA

2. Discus Implementation at Elmhurst College

3. WWWBoard implementation for CHM 110