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Munir Moosa Sadruddin

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I would be grateful if you all can share your viewpoints about asynchronous discussion forum uses for learners and practitioners. Can you share its strength and weakness according to your experiences, please?

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Yvonne Moore

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Hi Munir

Strength: 

When it works well students answer and develop each others responses. In my experience (supporting distance learning MSc programmes in Engineering) this happened when:

a. students were working in professional settings where the forum topics being discussed related to their work

b. the activities were largely problem-solving ones (often mathematical) where a 'right' answer emerged through the discussion

Weakness:

Student's don't always participate, as forum discussion is seen as extra to the reading/note taking activities.  Ironically the same students, on the MSc Engineering courses, would comment that there wasn't enough interaction between students!

Another problem can be the technology platform where the forum sits.  In a VLE, the students have to navigate through a login processs, and then numerous links to reach the forum - where there may not be any posts/reponses.  Social media discussion, on always logged-in apps, is far simpler.

Hope this is helpful smile

Cheers

Yvonne