Online Discussions as an Intervention for Strengthening Students’ Engagement in General Education

Abstract

Research suggests that students are skeptical about the values of General Education courses. This revelation calls for different strategies to improve students’ engagement in the classes, including the use of online learning platforms. This study documents students’ experiences of the online discussion forum as a tool for strengthening their engagement in the Social Sciences context of General Education. Data collection and analyses were conducted using quantitative and qualitative strategies involving learning analytics and critical incident questionnaire. The findings revealed that the forum aided students’ engagement and learning in the courses, especially when reading and responding to colleagues’ posts and relating topics to their personal experiences. Despite this, the findings showed that students’ engagement was hampered while interfacing with each other on the platform when colleagues repeated ideas, and discussions were inconsistent with their personal experiences. The results suggested that constructive feedback, clear guidelines, and reflective questions can strengthen students’ engagement and learning in online discussions. Based on the findings, implications for practice and stakeholders are discussed.

Can online discussions facilitate deep learning for students in General Education?

“…( Mena-Guacas & Velandia, 2020 ). Regular and constructive feedback was also provided to the students as scholars argued that they learn better when presented with additional support when necessary by their facilitators ( Aderibigbe, 2020 ; Balakrishnan and Lay, 2016 ; Taber, 2011 ; Vygotsky, 1978 ).…”

“… Escobar Fandino and Silva Veandia (2020) contend that educators need to keep exploring strategies for improving students' learning using online learning approaches. As reported in the literature, technology-augmented pedagogy offers opportunities to strengthen the teaching and learning process ( Aderibigbe, 2020 ; Magyar et al., 2020 ). It is also explained that young people are intrinsically motivated to use technology, and educators are exploiting the situation to help strengthen students' engagement and learning ( Troussas et al., 2020 ).…”

COVID-19 Inspired a STEM-Based Virtual Learning Model for Middle Schools—A Case Study of Qatar

“…Previous studies on the development of online courses suggest that cultivating interaction among the students is essential to ensuring their development [7][8][9][10]. Three types of interaction are vital to fostering an active learning community during online courses, which include interaction with content, interaction with instructors, and interaction with peers [11][12][13][14].…”

“…To create an optimistically impactful online course, the focus should also be imparted to the learning environment's ambiance, because it provides an essential support to students in accomplishing their learning goals [10,18,22,23] and leaves a positive impact on their constructive learning behavior [23,24]. Though most of the research on creating an active learning environment in virtual classrooms has aided the educators, barely any assistance was provided to science teachers in incorporating hands-on scientific activities in the online course material.…”

Understanding Issues Affecting Students’ Commitment to Online Discussion Forums in Undergraduate Courses

“…In a recent study, scholars report that students appreciate the flexibility elements of the online learning platforms but appear to have a low disposition to reflection and collaboration [8]. Studies also indicate that students' cooperation [9] and commitment to sharing ideas in online discussions can impact their engagement and learning [2]. The faculty's approach may also affect students' commitment and engagement in online discussions [2].…”