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Support and engage your online students by regularly monitoring your discussion forum
A discussion forum, also known as a bulletin board, is an asynchronous communication tool, which allows for student to student and instructor to student communication. Records of those communications are available for all students to view. Typically, the discussion tool is used through the University’s Learning Management System (LMS). Software such as Moodle Blackboard, Janison and others are commonly known brands for LMS, as the underlying software to deliver topics online. The LMS provides the instructor with an online space that incorporates a set of tools and that allows content and tasks to be structured in ways to support students in their learning, whether fully online, or as a complement to the face-to-face delivery of topics.

The discussion forum tool is the most used asynchronous communication tool ( Dawson et al, 2008 ) in higher education settings today. At the university where I work, the discussion tool is part of the minimum web presence in every topic and instructors are encouraged to use it. Although the use of this tool is widespread, the facilitation of students’ discussions by instructors is often neglected, leading to dead forums, orphaned postings (postings that receive no replies) and a lack of sense of community ( Dawson, 2006).

During my workshop //Using FLO for Good Educational Practice//, I encourage academic staff to provide a purpose for students to visit the discussion forum regularly by setting clearly defined tasks that require the use of the discussion forum for their completion. Students must see some value in it and assessment for participation is a possible solution. The instructor needs to refer to the discussion forum often, particularly at the beginning of the semester with the new cohort of students who may be new to this form of communication. Once set up, instructors need to regularly monitor their discussion forum. Woo et al (2007) suggest making a schedule for checking discussion forum postings. It is important to let students know when you will be regularly checking the discussion postings, so that students are not left waiting for a reply. Instructors also need to model communication within the discussion forum, and not assume that students know how to use this type of tool in a learning environment. Another aspect is to provide students with timelines for their contributions to the discussion forum

Delivery of authentic tasks can be enhanced by use of the discussion tool. For example, Woo et al (2007) describe the use of the discussion tool in two distinct tasks from two fully online courses at the University of Wollongong. In these examples, the discussion tool was used for collaboration and three out of the four groups of students produced high quality work. One group had discord among members of the group, and failed to complete the collaborative tasks. Another example from Woo et al (2007) suggested that the use of the asynchronous discussion tool yielded more in-depth discussion than the synchronous discussion tool. Time for reflection is a benefit of asynchronous discussion.

By having clear expectations of students’ use of the discussion forum and monitoring your discussion forum regularly, student engagement can be encouraged and student learning can be supported.