How do you encourage use?

The most obvious way to ‘encourage’ students to use a discussion board is to tell them that it is compulsory and that it is assessed. However, this does not lead to productive engagement and is for the most part not going to be true!

Including discussion board activities as part of the required format for a module – as in the ‘e-tivity’ example described above – means the students will perforce take part, but experience shows the engagement is quickly personal, because the student appreciates the benefit. Where use of the discussion board is optional, students need to see a reason to use it.

If a forum is created with no particular purpose and not moderated from the beginning, then it is likely to fail. If a forum has a purpose and is seen to be useful, then students will use it – even if only a small proportion of them. The decision for staff is how much effort is worthwhile it when only a small number of students participate. Remember though, just as some students sit quietly through seminars without contributing, but are listening intently and internalising the arguments, a discussion board may contain many students who ‘lurk’, reading but not responding. Some little effort on your part may benefit more than you think, and certainly challenge the better students.

Last Modified: 2 August 2010