Our research work titled “How to foster forum discussions within MOOCs: A case study” got published as part of the International Journal of Academic Research in Education. We introduce some of our experiences concerning discussion forums in MOOCs.
Abstract:
Discussion forums are an essential part to foster interaction among teachers and students, as well as students and students, in virtual learning settings. If interaction can be enhanced, this has a positive influence on motivation and finally also on dropout rates. These days, a special form of online courses, so-called MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), are popping up massively. Those courses are characterized by a high number of students. In this paper, we would like to examine discussion forums and their role concerning interaction. Therefore, Gilly Salmon’s well-known Five stage model is taken and adapted to MOOCs based on a case study. As a method, we tracked learners’ data through learning analytics applications and concluded that there is a positive correlation between reading from one side and writing in forums from the other side.
[Link to Full Paper @ ResearchGate]
Reference: Lackner, E., Khalil, M. & Ebner, M. (2016). How to foster forum discussions within MOOCs: A case study, International Journal of Academic Research in Education, 2(2), 01‐13. DOI: 10.17985/ijare.31432