Use and Perceived Value of Class Forums

Numerous studies have illustrated the ability or online class discussion J{wums to support college~ level student learning and performance. Yet few instructors incorporate forums into their courses. Many believe that students will filii to find value in or CVCJl usc class forums or they arc concerned about increasing their instructional workloads. I krein we address these concerns via a mixcd-mdhods study or our own students' experiences with class forums. Introduction Due to their high-tech upbringings, students of the 'Net Generation learn and process infonnati<.in differei1t!y than students of prior generations and they possess equally dillercnt views of higher education (Williams & Chinn, 2009; Limbach & Waugh, 2010). For example, the 'Net generation expects learning to be interactive and collaborative with rapid and fl·equent feedback fi·om peers and instructors (Thomas, 2002). Further, many universities arc encouraging the usc of tcchnology~based learning tools to engage these students. The challenge to educators then is to create learning environments that meet these learning styles and expectations without sacrificing instructional efficiency (Dawson, Burnett, & O'Donohue, 2006). Low cost, widely available online discussion forums may offer a means to meeting this challenge. Discussion forums arc asynchronous conversation tools where student participants may start new conversations, cal!cd as threads, respond to someone else's conversation, called posts, or search for pre~existing conversations, or knowlcdgcbase. Recent research suggests that such online discussions among students arc positively related with performance and !earning and yet the pedagogical adoption of forums is low (O'Reilly, Rahinel, Foster, & Patterson, 2007; Ajjan & Hartshorne, 2008; Alstete & Bcutcll, 2004). This may be due instructors' beliefs that students will not actively participate in the-forums or will not f1nd them valuable. They may further believe that adding forums to their courses will greatly increase workloads. We address these concerns by reporting on our own students' usc and perceived value of forums as class resources and by i!lustrating hov .., these tools maybe employed with minimal instructor