Peer Interaction and Engagement Through Online Discussion Forums

Peer interaction and engagement through online discussion forums Sandra Clarke MA (Oxon), Barrister, Teaching Fellow, University of Greenwich.

Literature Review

Introduction Following an very inspiring presentation from the REAP (Re-Engineering Assessment Practices in Scottish Higher Education) team , I attempted to address problems of attrition and non- engagement amongst first year law students by introducing online small group activities based around discussion forums into the level 1 Legal Method course, a skills course taken by all the students. The idea was to build student engagement through teamwork online, thus moving towards a constructivist theory of learning: Jonassen, D, et al, Constructivism and Computer- mediated communication in distance education.i

The students were randomly divided into groups of between 8-12 students using the WebCT group function. Group discussion forums were provided for a series of activities, complementing the normal lecture pattern of 2 hours lecture plus one seminar each week. This paper considers the results over two years of introducing this system in a Widening Participation university.

It did not prove possible to reproduce the success experienced in the REAP project. This paper attempts to unravel the various reasons for this, technical, pedagogical and practical.

The REAP project The project was funded by the Scottish Funding Council during 2005-07 under its e-Learning Transformation Programme. The REAP partners are the University of Strathclyde (lead), the University of Glasgow and Glasgow Caledonian University.ii The particular part of the project which interested me was the intervention in the psychology class at Strathclyde University iii. This has also been written up by Jim Baxter as A Case Study of Online Collaborative Work in a Large First Year Psychology Class iv, and by David Nicol, Increasing Success in first year courses: Assessment re-design, self-regulation and learning technologies.v The project itself cites Chickering & Gamson’s Seven Principles of Good Undergraduate Educationvi .

The student first year experience of ICT in higher education There has been a recent study of how students adapt to their first year at university, and in particular how they use ICT: Hardy, J et al, ICT & the Student First Year Experience A Report from the LEaD Project, March 2009vii

The Use of Asynchronous Discussion Forums The use of computer mediated communication in general and asynchronous discussion forums in particular has generated a huge amount of academic discussion. Even those who are sceptical about the mass introduction of technology into higher education accept that discussion forums can have their uses: Brabazon, T, (2002) Digital Hemlock: Internet Education and the Poisoning of Teaching. Sydney: University of NSW Press. However, a number of studies have shown student resistance to using online discussion methods, for example: Hunt ,L. et al, (2002) Student Resistance to ICT in Educationviii, Gerbic, P, To post or not to post: Undergraduate student perceptions about participating in online discussionsix.

There has also been considerable research into what makes for successful interaction on discussions boards: Dennen, V. (2005)From message posting to learning dialogues: Factors affecting learner participation in asynchronous discussion.x Vonderwell, S, (2003) An examination of asynchronous communication experiences and perspectives of students in an online course: a case studyxi . See also Watson, A. (2008) Developing teaching practice for more effective use of asynchronous discussion: a preliminary investigation.xii

Team-working There have been a number of studies of students working in teams online, for example Goold A et al, The Student experience of working in teams online,xiii Alexander, P, Teamwork, time, trust and informationxiv

Previous Experience I have presented on my previous successful use of discussion forums at the Greenwich e-learning conference in June 2008, published in the post-conference reflections at http://web-dev- csc.gre.ac.uk/conference/conf37/docs/Learning%20from%20the%20Learners %20Experience2008.pdf . i The American journal of distance education [0892-3647] Jonassen yr:1995 vol:9 iss:2 pg:7 ii . iii and . iv v Proceedings of the 23rd annual ascilite conference, available at vi Chickering and Gamson (1991), Applying the seven principles of good feedback practice in undergraduate education, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. vii http://www.jisc.hosting.eduserv.org.uk/media/documents/programmes/elearningpedagogy/leadfinalreport.pdf viii Proceedings of the International conference on Computers in Education (ICCE’02) ix Proceedings of the 23rd annual ascilite conference, available at x Distance Education, Vol 26, No,1, May 2005, 127-148 xi The Internet and Higher Education Volume 6, Issue 1, 1st Quarter 2003, Pages 77-90 xii Proceedings ascilite Melbourne 2008 < xiii Proceedings of the 25th ascilite conference, available at http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/melbourne08/procs/goold.pdf xiv Proceedings of SAICSIT 2002, p65-74.