The power of e-discussion forum to support e-learning process
The enhance on information communication technology bring positive impact on educational field, especially in higher education level. In the past education is delivered manually, face to face meeting without sophisticated media. Nowadays, the education is improving by emerging of technology especially internet and web technology. Education now delivered in many ways, thus supports long life learning and re-learning for everyone. E-learning has become a popular issue in 21st century in many countries, including in Indonesia. Some higher educational institutions has already implement e-learning in their syllabus. Many information technology people, lecturers, teachers, web designers, even students feel the euphoria  of the e-learning and use the technology to support the e-learning. Furthermore, the easy access to the internet (for some areas) also triggers to the changing concept of learning. The increasing of internet user in Indonesia from 2 millions in 2000 to 20 millions in 2007 also bring significant improvement on e-learning. One of medias to support e-learning in higher education is e-discussion forum, the idea is simple but it is powerful learning tool. Discussion forum will be useful for e-learning process if it used maximally. Following this will be discussed the benefits and issues of discussion forum, and implementation of discussion forum for e- learning process.
The benefits of e-discussion forum:
-Increasing student creativity and knowledge by peer to peer discussion, this is because some students are learning more when they discuss the course material with other fellow students. According to Patel & Aghayere, 2006 in their survey states that online discussion forum bring positive impact on e-learning for on campus student, and bring significant result for their grade.
-No shy student anymore, e-discussion forum encourages people creativity without showing who they are, this is bring benefit for student who shy to ask and answer a question at class (Patel & Aghayere, 2006). Because talking at class sometime is daunting moment for shy student, and it does not mean that they do not have something to offer.
-Provides repository, e-discussion provides repository for all posts, hence, student can easily to trace back the old threads for re-learning purposes. This is not available in traditional face to face discussion.
-Promotes mutual exchange, the system on discussion is ‘take and give’, where student can give information that they have, and learn from other student so they will be have more knowledge in particular course.Â
-Promotes active learning by write the idea in the discussion forum (Hein & Irvine, 200u).
-Faster feedback, e-discussion gives faster feedback anytime of day both from other student and teacher, this will improves the learning process.Â
-All about course material can be discuss in e-discussion, about assignment, lecture material, important news, reading lists, and important links.
The issues of e-discussion forum:
-Digital divide, before implementing e-discussion forum, the educational institution should  be aware of the information technology skill and availability both for teachers and students. The sophisticated technology will mean nothing if they are not used. People’s skill in IT is different some of them are expert, moderate or novice, therefore, the e-discussion should caters all of those categories.
-Accessibility, not all students or teachers have internet connection at home, so they cannot login to the discussion anytime, or the slow connection that leads to unopened file. Those problem should be considered before implementing e-discussion forum.
-The teacher should have the ability to deliver good and high quality of discussion topic. Gives a quick response if needed, and encourages the students to use the discussion forum.
Implementation:
I put two case studies to help understanding about the implementation of e-discussion forum in higher education or university in order to support the learning process.Â
Faculty of IT, Monash University.
The discussion board is available for every unit through blackboard and some units are prefer moodle discussion forum, in this place students can interact with other student as well as lecturer or tutor. The subjects are range from general discussion, assignment, exam, and any interesting topic based on the subject. However, some units are setting the discussion board as one of assessment method, where students should post some threads (the topic is given by the lecturer) and reply to other post in certain time. In this case students should use discussion forum to express their idea and to learn more about the topic. The assessment method is based on the number of thread posted and reply. This is help student’s understanding and critical thinking on a topic that been selected. The result was very significant, compare to general discussion forum (without assessment) the discussion forum based on assessment brings more traffic and new ideas and increase user’s knowledge on that unit.
Northern Arizona University
Called ’screen porch’ as their online discussion that allows students to post multimedia link and supports graphic user interface. The discussion topics are available every week provided by web course, and student should responses one or two ended question. The student’s group project also should be posted in discussion forum.
The successful of e-discussion forum depends on how teacher encourage students to use it. As I mentioned before, the technology it self will mean nothing without human presence. Technology only a tool to help human to increase learning process. Hopefully through e-discussion forum, even though this is a common technology but if it implemented and maintained properly, this will brings significant different on educational field.
References:
Indonesian internet user statistic:Â http://www.internetworldstats.com/asia.htm#idÂ
Jimmy Patel and Abi Aghayere. (2006). Student’s perspective on the impact of a web-based discussion forum on student learning. 36th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, October 28-31, 2006, San Diego, CA.
Teresa L Hein, & Sarah E Irvine. (200u). Assessment of student understanding using online discussion groups. http://fie.engrng.pitt.edu/fie98/papers/1375.pdfanother student questions (circle all that apply)?Â
Comments
One Response to “The power of e-discussion forum to support e-learning process”
Leave a Reply
[...] The power of e-discussion forum to support e-learning process [...]