Encouraging online bulletin board participation. (The scholarship of teaching and learning).Abstract This article describes action research experiences aimed at increasing student participation in online conferencing See teleconferencing. in three graduate educational research courses. An evaluation rubric RUBRIC, civil law. The title or inscription of any law or statute, because the copyists formerly drew and painted the title of laws and statutes rubro colore, in red letters. Ayl. Pand. B. 1, t. 8; Diet. do Juris. h.t. found to be effective in increasing the quantity and quality of student posts to an electronic bulletin board is presented. Data analysis revealed a moderate, positive correlation Noun 1. positive correlation - a correlation in which large values of one variable are associated with large values of the other and small with small; the correlation coefficient is between 0 and +1 direct correlation between the number of posts students made and their score on the course examination. Discussion group size was found to also be important. Over-enrolled discussion groups became tedious to read, while under-enrolled groups failed to effectively interact. Statement of the Problem Approximately 5.8 million students will have taken online courses from 75% of the universities in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. by the end of this year. Students enroll in online courses because participation is flexible (Poole, 2000, p. 164). Since web-based courses are often taught asynchronously, students can attend at their convenience. Because the web is widely available, the courses can be completed from various locations. Web-based courses have evolved from inaugural sites where text was posted with limited interaction between the professor and student, and even less interaction among students, to discussion-based courses involving communities of learners. Educators are increasingly seeking ways to promote student interaction. As VanGorp (1998) noted, "The Web is now more than an area to access and post information: It is a place to interactively communicate and construct knowledge" (p. 12). Computer conferencing See chat, videoconferencing and data conferencing. with bulletin boards is one way to promote learner autonomy Learner autonomy has been a buzz word in foreign language education in the past decades, especially when talking about life-long learning skills. It has transformed old practices in the language classroom and has given origin to self_access_language_learning_centers around the and it affords equal opportunity for students to participate in discussions (Cifuentes, Murphy, Segur, & Kodali, 1997). The purpose of this article is to share action research experiences aimed at increasing student participation in online conferencing in three graduate educational research courses. Second, the article presents an evaluation rubric found to be effective in increasing the quantity and quality of student posts to an electronic bulletin board. Background of the Study Florida Gulf Coast University About FGCU History The newest university in the State University System of Florida, the school was established by then-governor Lawton Chiles in 1991, although the site of the university wasn't chosen until 1992, and construction pushed back even further still (until (2001) found that nine different forms of online instruction exist. These include: * sharing information on a web site * providing practice for new concepts by using online activities such as simulations and games * communicating one-to-one or one-to-many via email for instructional purposes * conducting discussions using a threaded discussion A running commentary of messages between two or more people in a discussion group. See message thread and discussion group. board * holding office hours office hours, n.pl See business hours. using chat room software * delivering library resources via the Internet Internet Publicly accessible computer network connecting many smaller networks from around the world. It grew out of a U.S. Defense Department program called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), established in 1969 with connections between computers at the * giving practice tests or evaluating performance using online assessments * submitting assignments electronically. One of these, the threaded discussion board, allows students to communicate much like a conventional bulletin board, but in a more versatile fashion (Mitchell Mitchell, city (1990 pop. 13,798), seat of Davison co., SE S.Dak.; inc. 1881. Mitchell is a trade, distribution, and shipping center for a dairy and livestock area. , 1996). Instructors create discussion areas, known as conferences, where students usually interact in asynchronous Refers to events that are not synchronized, or coordinated, in time. The following are considered asynchronous operations. The interval between transmitting A and B is not the same as between B and C. The ability to initiate a transmission at either end. time. The conference areas can be private or public. The instructor determines which students have access to private conference areas while all students have access to the public conference areas. The students and instructor post and react to messages, similar to email messages, in these conference areas. Threaded discussions allow students to follow and respond to various topics posted in the conference areas. Some examples of electronic bulletin board use are mentoring middle and secondary students during research projects (Murfin & Go, 1998) and interactive virtual discussions in teacher education (Formosa, 1998; Hyun, Smrekar, DiPento, & Matthews, 1999; Justice & Espinoza, 1999). Through asynchronous web conferences, instructors can also promote community building and project collaboration. Students often feel isolated in online courses. Instructors alleviate Alleviate To make something easier to be endured. Mentioned in: Kinesiology, Applied isolation by encouraging interaction with and among students. As Cambre, Erdman, and Hall cautioned in 1996: In a regular, on-campus course, students acquire ideas from each other and from the instructor, refine their work as they go along, and produce projects that reflect a collaborative and interactive effort. If students are expected to produce the same level of work through distance learning, their isolation must be addressed. (p. 227) The interaction present in computer conferencing appears to be a positive step toward diminishing di·min·ish v. di·min·ished, di·min·ish·ing, di·min·ish·es v.tr. 1. a. To make smaller or less or to cause to appear so. b. student isolation and creating communities of learners. Methods and Results Data were collected in three university graduate educational research courses. Two of the three university research courses were fully web-based, online courses that required online discussions. This research investigated bulletin board use under different university class conditions. The first group was an on-campus on-campus adjective Referring to an on-site site of a medical complex with multiple buildings. Cf 'Off campus.'. class consisting of 12 Integrated Bachelors/Masters (IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) ) students during spring semester se·mes·ter n. One of two divisions of 15 to 18 weeks each of an academic year. [German, from Latin (cursus) s 2000. These students were completing a five-year teacher education program that culminated in a Master's degree master's degree n. An academic degree conferred by a college or university upon those who complete at least one year of prescribed study beyond the bachelor's degree. Noun 1. in education. All but one of the students was female and all of them were preservice teachers. The students received a bulletin board login Signing in and gaining access to a network server, Web server or other computer system. The process (the noun) is a "login" or "logon," while the act of doing it (the verb) is to "log in" or to "log on. name and password and were encouraged to use the bulletin board to discuss topics pertinent PERTINENT, evidence. Those facts which tend to prove the allegations of the party offering them, are called pertinent; those which have no such tendency are called impertinent, 8 Toull. n. 22. By pertinent is also meant that which belongs. Willes, 319. to the course but were not required to use it. All of the students were familiar with bulletin boards from previous classes. All of the students had Internet access See how to access the Internet. on campus. A second group of educational research students was enrolled in a similar course in fall semester 2000, however, the course was offered fully online through the Internet. Fourteen students were enrolled in the course (n=2 males and n=12 females). With the exception of one student, all of them were inservice teachers. All of the students had Internet access at home and at their schools. The course consisted of eight units. Textbook textbook Informatics A treatise on a particular subject. See Bible. material in the web-based classes was supplemented with web pages and PowerPoint presentations. The students cooperatively worked on projects and discussed concepts covered in the textbook and in the instructor's web notes on the bulletin board. The bulletin board postings were one component of the research course and accounted for 10% of a student's final grade. In order to receive full credit, a student posted three messages for each unit. The third group of educational research students was enrolled in a fully web-based course in spring semester 2001. This group consisted of 6 students (n=3 males and n=3 females). This group was a combination of inservice and preservice teachers. The same rules and procedures for the previous group applied to this third group of research students. The online educational research course is traditionally scheduled for fall semester. Since students were not expecting the course during the spring, the course enrollment was smaller than in the fall. Although the instructor made the option of using bulletin board available to the 12 students in the campus-based research class, none of them posted messages to the bulletin board. Bulletin board use was not required for the course and the students did not choose to use it. This may have been because they did not feel the instructor felt it was important. It may have also been because they were not as familiar with bulletin boards as the instructor presumed. On their own, the students did not create a use for the bulletin board. Because discussion was a key component of the fully online courses and previous experience with the first group indicated that bulletin board discussions would not occur automatically, the instructor required bulletin board participation with the web-based classes. Initially the instructor asked each student to post three messages per week. The responses were often simple sentences such as "I agree." After several weeks, the instructor realized some evaluation criteria needed to be established. The following evaluation rubric for student postings was developed and shared with the students in the second, and later third, group: Level 1 -- Grade of C Student messages explore the topic or issue by identifying and organizing relevant facts, formulating conclusions, and presenting them. Level 2 -- Grade of B In addition to (1), students provide examples related to the topic and interact in a dialogue that involves supporting or challenging ideas that others have proposed. Level 3 -- Grade of A In addition to (2), students initiate new threads of related discussion in the context of the current discussion dialogue. Students explain how a new or previous concept connects to the current concept or how their daily experiences relate to class content and discussion. Level 1 criteria did not encourage interaction among the students. It did enable the instructor to assess the students' understanding of the course content, however, it failed to engage students with each other. Level 2 criteria promoted interaction by forcing students to reflect on what others had posted and to react to it. Level 2 stipulated that the student must also provide related examples. Without the related examples that challenge or support classmate's ideas, Level 2 posting could have easily became a hollow message such as, "I agree with Maria." It was at Level 3 where students began to take control of their learning and the direction of class postings. Level 3 encouraged them to initiate new threads of related discussion. A key requirement of Level 3 was "related discussion." This phrase encouraged students to focus the conversation within the confines con·fine v. con·fined, con·fin·ing, con·fines v.tr. 1. To keep within bounds; restrict: Please confine your remarks to the issues at hand. See Synonyms at limit. of the course content while giving them the freedom to explore areas of interest within those confines. Level 3 also made the course more meaningful to students by encouraging them to apply what they were learning within the course to their everyday lives. Once the rubric was introduced, a statement such as the following appeared: The issue that Dori raised about the CMT tests and the correlation that the media finds is an interesting one. Even though I am not familiar with this type of test or the procedure that is followed in the schools when students are asked to take this test, after reading about data-collector bias as an instrument threat in the book, I really wonder if teachers or the school administrators take into consideration all these threats to internal validity when educational research is conducted ... Ninety-three percent of the students entered the required three posts for each week. Providing the rubric described above was an effective method to increase the quality of the posts and to expand the number of posts. Many students went beyond the required three posts. Approximately .75% of the posts reached Level 3. One of the dangers of online discussions is the quantity of posts that must be read (Kimball, 1995). While too many posting can be cumbersome cum·ber·some adj. 1. Difficult to handle because of weight or bulk. See Synonyms at heavy. 2. Troublesome or onerous. cum to read, too few students involved in the discussion can also be problematic. A comparison of similar discussion topics with the group of 14 and the group of 6, showed the group of 14 produced a proportionally pro·por·tion·al adj. 1. Forming a relationship with other parts or quantities; being in proportion. 2. Properly related in size, degree, or other measurable characteristics; corresponding: higher number of posts than the group of 6. Over the course of four discussion topics, the group of 14 produced four times as many posts as the group of 6. The instructor experimented by dividing the 14 student class into two groups of 7. The average number of student posts per question was 14.8 when the 14 students were together. When the group was divided into two groups of 7, the average number of posts per question dropped to 4, not 7 as he anticipated. Data analysis revealed a moderate, positive correlation between the number of posts students made and their score on the course examination, r (12) = .58, p < .05. Group size is important. Cifuentes et al (1997) suggested limiting groups to 15 members to encourage meaningful communication among participants. Members of the group of 14 in this study would at times repeat comments made by peers. When group sizes fell to 6 or 7, the number of posts and quality of the interaction deteriorated. It appears discussion groups .around 10 participants might be optimal. Over-enrolled discussion groups become tedious to read, while under-enrolled groups fail to effectively interact. Discussion If the bulletin board is to remain active, course instructors must share with their students the quantity and quality of participation on the bulletin board they expect. While graduate students are sometimes motivated mo·ti·vate tr.v. mo·ti·vat·ed, mo·ti·vat·ing, mo·ti·vates To provide with an incentive; move to action; impel. mo to post to a bulletin board, establishing grading criteria for the quality of the posts is effective. There must be a purpose for students to participate in bulletin board discussions. Initially the instructor can create the purpose. In the case of the on-campus research students, this did not occur and the conference area was not used. Ultimately the students need to internalize internalize To send a customer order from a brokerage firm to the firm's own specialist or market maker. Internalizing an order allows a broker to share in the profit (spread between the bid and ask) of executing the order. the purpose and control the discussion. The Level 2 and Level 3 posting requirements discussed in this article promote this. Cifuentes et al (1997) emphasized the importance of grading criteria. "This emphasis on quality of entry established a meaningful purpose for the groups, leading to the general belief that computer conferencing is a relevant classroom activity" (p. 197). MacKinnon (2000) also recommended establishing evaluation criteria for student posts. The more open the parameters of questions by the instructor, the more interactive the discussion that ensues. Schlagal, Gtrathen, and Blanton (1996) studied email interactions among preservice and inservice teachers. They found that "too controlled a structure seems to inhibit inhibit /in·hib·it/ (in-hib´it) to retard, arrest, or restrain. in·hib·it v. 1. To hold back; restrain. 2. free exchange. In contrast, too free a structure appears to result in free-flowing, socioemotional rather than professional, task-oriented exchanges" (p. 181). It can be difficult to maintain this balance between the two. The rubric presented in this article helps maintain the balance. Students must also feel comfortable using the technology. Instructors should provide safe practice opportunities for students who are unfamiliar with the conferencing software (Cambre et al., 1996). The Florida Gulf Coast University (2001) suggested three principles to consider when encouraging interaction among learners. First, make no assumptions about the students' abilities to use electronic communication technologies. Second, provide time and opportunity for students to practice and master the technologies. Third, create opportunities for students to use the technologies to interact. Online instructors can build a sense of community by asking students to introduce themselves to the group with an initial conference post. This exercise provides students with an opportunity to safely practice their technology skills in a non-threatening situation and also encourages community building. Some instructors ask students to share photos of themselves with the class, although Buckley (1997) reported an advantage to the physical anonymity provided online. As someone with a physical challenge, she found online discussions physically freeing. Instructors should clearly define roles within an electronic discussion. Poole (2000) recommended that students be responsible for monitoring discussions. She found that students were more involved when the discussion was more student-driven and less instructor-driven. Students need to know what is expected of them and what type of input they can expect to receive from the instructor. In the graduate research courses in this study, the instructor would wait for students to correct each other's misconceptions Misconceptions is an American sitcom television series for The WB Network for the 2005-2006 season that never aired. It features Jane Leeves, formerly of Frasier, and French Stewart, formerly of 3rd Rock From the Sun. . When that did not occur alter 2 or 3 days, the instructor would enter the discussion and either correct the misconception mis·con·cep·tion n. A mistaken thought, idea, or notion; a misunderstanding: had many misconceptions about the new tax program. or pose another question to prompt additional reflection on the topic. Initially the students were uncomfortable with the instructor's absence, and they sought immediate approval of their postings. After the instructor described the role he wished to play, the students became more comfortable interacting with each other, rather than solely with him. He found that students felt isolated when he refrained from participating for periods longer than 5 or 6 days. Occasionally students stray Stray (1) Not a member of the participating party in the trade at hand; (2) not a meaningful indication of a customer's desire to take a sizable position or be involved in a stock. from the intended discussion topic. The university courses in this study included three non-academic conference areas. A student lounge conference was available for students to post messages unrelated to the course. A technology conference area allowed students to post questions related to using the bulletin board software. An electronic office conference area contained questions about course requirements and assignments. Thomas, Clift, and Sugimoto (1996) classified computer-mediated conversations into five focus areas: article (comments on article read for the class), content (course readings), technical (use of the website), procedural (announcements and course requirements), or nonacademic (personal messages). Instructors may wish to create special conference areas for each. The relationship between the number of posts students made and their grades warrants further research. While students may benefit academically from posting messages, it might also be that those who are mastering the material are more confident and therefore more likely to post responses to the discussion. Those who posted frequently were also probably reading more posts. Students might find reading the discussion equally beneficial to posting. An apparent advantage to electronic discussion groups is the opportunity for incubation incubation /in·cu·ba·tion/ (in?ku-ba´shun) 1. the provision of proper conditions for growth and development, as for bacterial or tissue cultures. 2. of ideas. Students read each other's messages, reflect on them, and post their responses. The bulletin board has its benefits and shortcomings A shortcoming is a character flaw. Shortcomings may also be:
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San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. , CA. Poole, D. M. (2000). Student participation in a discussion-oriented online course: A case study. Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 33, 125-131. Schlagal, B., Trathen, W., & Blanton, W. (1996). Structuring telecommunications Communicating information, including data, text, pictures, voice and video over long distance. See communications. to create instructional conversations about student teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 47, 175-183. Thomas, L., Clift, R., & Sugimoto, T. (1996). Telecommunication telecommunication Communication between parties at a distance from one another. Modern telecommunication systems—capable of transmitting telephone, fax, data, radio, or television signals—can transmit large volumes of information over long distances. , student teaching, and methods instruction. An exploratory investigation. Journal of Teacher Education, 47, 167-174. Van Gorp, M. J. (1998). Computer-mediated communication Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) can be defined broadly as any form of data exchange across two or more networked computers. More frequently, the term is narrowed to include only those communications that occur via computer-mediated formats (i.e. in preservice teacher education: Surveying research, identifying problems, and considering needs. Journal of Computing in Teacher Education, 12(2), 8-14. Del Siegle, University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut is the State of Connecticut's land-grant university. It was founded in 1881 and serves more than 27,000 students on its six campuses, including more than 9,000 graduate students in multiple programs. UConn's main campus is in Storrs, Connecticut. Del Siegle is an assistant professor in Educational Psychology. His research interests include instructional technology and gifted education issues. |
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