在线交互:论坛使用策略的重要性

Online interaction: Why it matters to use forums strategicallyOnline strategically

异步会议系统/论坛用途非常广泛,在提高远程教育教与学的质量方面有很大潜能。研究者认为这种潜能体现在能把对话、交流和社交临场融入在线学习中。然而并非使用这种异步技术就能自然而然实现对话、交流和社交临场这些有助于在线学习的优势。学生参与度低,论坛帖子质量参差不齐,至少有一些学生和辅导教师不满意异步交互活动——这都是普遍存在的问题。本文拟阐述英国开放大学如何通过鼓励课程组更加注重论坛教学活动的设计策略从而克服上述弊端。我们可根据学习目标判断学生是否必须使用论坛才能够达成某一学习目标。因为必须通过考核才能判断学习目标是否得以实现,所以课程考核设计也必须涵盖论坛活动表现。但如果某门课程不需要学生参加论坛活动便可有效达成学习目标,那么课程组既可以决定完全不使用论坛也可以把论坛设计成为向自愿使用论坛的学生提供有效学习支持的途径。本文以一门课程为例,讨论如何非常有效地使用论坛达成一项关键学习目标。必须指出,要确保论坛有高参与度,就必须对学生的论坛表现做出具体说明,而且论坛活动是课程资源和考核不可或缺的组成部分,学生在参加小组论坛交互活动之前常常得有所准备、完成一些个人学习任务。

Asynchronous conferencing/forums are an extremely versatile tool with great potential for the quality of teaching and learning in distance education. Researchers have identified this potential as bringing dialogue, conversation and social presence into online learning. The use of the technology however has not delivered these benefits very readily. A common experience has been low levels of participation, contributions/postings of mixed quality and expressed dissatisfaction from at least some students and tutors. This paper outlines how one institution is responding to this situation by encouraging course teams to take a more strategic approach to designing forums into their teaching. Student learning outcomes can be used to identify whether students have to use forums in order to achieve any of the learning outcomes. Since learning outcomes should also be assessed, participation in forums will therefore need to be designed into the assessment strategy. However, where the course does not need participation in forums for effective delivery of the learning outcomes, the course team may either decide not to use forums at all, or to design their usage so that they offer effective student support for those who wish to use them on a voluntary basis. The paper also describes how one particular course used forums extremely effectively in order to deliver a key learning outcome. The message here is that high levels of participation in forums requires activities which specify what students are to do in their forum, that these activities are an integral part of course resources and their assessment, and that individual preparation and activity is often necessary prior to interaction as part of a group online forum.