Improving academic outcomes: does participating in online discussion forums payoff?

Abstract

This paper reports on a study investigating the potential relationship between a student's discussion forum activity and their academic performance. The study also examined the influence of the delivery method (i.e. blended or fully online) on the impact that forum participation may have on a student's final mark. To address these aims, student forum participation data and teaching delivery method were extracted from the universities Learning Management System (LMS). The analysis identified that students who actively participate in their teaching unit's discussion forum are more likely to achieve a higher final mark than those that do not participate. It was also observed that the resulting effect of participation in a teaching unit's online discussion forum was greater for a blended delivery modal than for fully online teaching units. This study affirms how learning analytics data derived from online discussion forums can be proactively applied to enhance teaching and learning practice. Abstract: This paper reports on a study investigating the potential relationship between a student's discussion forum activity and their academic performance. The study also examined the influence of the delivery method (i.e. blended or fully online) on the impact that forum participation may have on a student's final mark. To address these aims, student forum participation data and teaching delivery method were extracted from the universities learning management system (LMS). The analysis identified that students who actively participate in their teaching unit's discussion forum are more likely to achieve a higher final mark than those that do not participate. It was also observed that the resulting effect of participation in a teaching unit's online discussion forum was greater for a blended delivery modal than for fully online teaching units. This study affirms how learning analytics data derived from online discussion forums can be proactively applied to enhance teaching and learning practice.

Social capital from online discussion forums: Differences between online and blended modes of delivery

“…The findings are consistent with our earlier work (Carceller et al, 2013) that an academic advantage may be derived for those students that actively participate in their online discussion forum. This aligns with the idea that communication activity represents investment in social networks and in the social capital cycle.…”

“…For instance, discussion forum activity can facilitate student-centred learning (Ellis, 2001), and support student engagement (Jahnke, 2010); sense of community (Davies & Graff, 2005;Dawson, 2006;Rovai, 2002) and academic performance (Carceller, Dawson, & Lockyer, 2013;Morris, Finnegan, & Wu, 2005). While the pedagogical benefits associated with discussion forum participation have now been well established, there has, however, been limited investigation into the types of relationships that manifest in this medium and how these relationships can be leveraged for academic advantage regardless of the delivery mode (i.e., blended or fully online).…”

An interactive online approach to small-group student presentations and discussions

“…First, we did not assess learning outcomes for the presentations as this was beyond the scope of this exploratory study. Some previous studies demonstrated that online discussion forums increased student performance (3,4,7), whereas other studies showed no correlations between student performance and online discussion (24). In our study, many students did report in the survey that learning was enhanced with VoiceThread.…”

Monitoring, awareness and reflection in blended technology enhanced learning: a systematic review

“…Among the remaining papers, we distinguished a set (11 papers), mainly proposing models, indicators, visualizations or analytic methods, which applied their proposed model/analysis to a dataset gathered from authentic educational contexts (e.g., the log files generated during a course). The scale of these authentic dataset analyses varied greatly: certain studies analysed data representing a few dozen students, while others used massive multi-course ensembles (the extreme case being Carceller et al (2013), in which n students = 12901). The median size of these datasets, however, was n students = 252.…”