Effectiveness of Using Online Discussion Forum for Case Study Analysis

Abstract

Business schools are exploring new pedagogical approaches to learning in order to deal with challenges such as increased class sizes, limited funding support, and difficulties in facilitating and encouraging active participation and learning among a diverse cohort of students. This paper reports on a study of the effectiveness of a pedagogical approach that blends online discussion board and case study. Analysing quantity and quality of online postings and comparing accounting students’ performance with previous cohort, this study observes a significant improvement in student learning. Appropriate design and delivery strategies and clear assessment criteria for assessment and use have provided an effective learning vehicle for students, helped them overcome their own language related barriers, and encouraged them to participate in a nonthreatening environment. This approach further complemented the benefits of peer-to-peer learning and case study pedagogy. Reported increase in workload for students and marking load for academics and measuring the value of learning, however, are some of the challenges that need further attention by researchers.

One Size Does Not Fit All: Toward an Evidence-Based Framework for Determining Online Course Enrollment Sizes in Higher Education

“…Many university administrators pursued market expansion through the development of online courses, and with them an increase in student enrollment for purposes of revenue generation and/or cost reduction Chapman & Ludlow, 2010;Colwell & Jenks, 2004;Diette & Raghav, 2015;Jones, 2015;Maringe & Sing, 2014;Mupinga & Maughan, 2008;Pelech et al, 2013;. In the rapidly changing technology-driven conditions within universities, an upward creep of online class sizes emerged and began to raise faculty concerns that educational effectiveness could be threatened (Jones, 2015;Ravenna, 2012;Seethamraju, 2014;Smith, Brashen, Minor, & Anthony, 2015;Snowball, 2014). Indeed, throughout this period of online growth there appears to have been little systematic application of learning theory principles to decisions on a cluster of issues arising for online courses: class sizes, effective pedagogical methods, rising university costs and revenues, faculty workload, and accommodating diverse student learning needs (Tynan et al, 2015;Mupinga & Maughan, 2008).…”

“How Did We Get Here?”: Topic Drift in Online Health Discussions

“…However, topic drift occurs frequently in computer-mediated communication (CMC) and can be a source of incoherence [3] and frustration. Moreover, topic drift can hinder meaningful social interaction [4] and knowledge construction [4,5]. Despite the importance of maintaining the goal (eg, acquiring information or support on the initiating topic) and topic of discussion, drift can still occur.…”

The Role of Online Discussion Forums in Newcomers' Labour Market Integration in Canada

“…Data for this study was collected from multiple online forums. An online forum is a form of online discussion board where individuals communicate, discuss and debate various subjects through posting messages with new topics for discussions or replying to previously posted messages (Figer, 2014;Figer and de Torres, 2012;Im and Chee, 2012;Seethamraju, 2014). Online forums not only offer users new and easy ways to communicate, seek and exchange information, and connect with individuals from various communities across the world, but also provide researchers new opportunities for novel research (Li and Cox, 2016;Kim and Sundar, 2016;Omidvar et al, 2014;Pendry and Salvatore, 2015).…”

“…The number of threads (i.e., discussion topics) and posts (i.e., replies) increased by about 37% and 31% respectively as well. Online discussion forums have been examined in several areas of research, including education (e.g., Griesbaum et al, 2015;Seethamraju, 2014), health (e.g., Brady et al, 2016;Lee, 2017;Kim and Sundar, 2016;Moore and Ayers, 2017;Pan et al, 2017), and psychology (e.g., McKiernan et al, 2017;Tabor and Milfont, 2013;Zhao and Basnyat, 2018). Although the process of global migration and importance of employment on newcomers' adjustment has been researched extensively and for several decades (e.g., Boyd, 1989;Choldin, 1973;Crowley-Henry, 2013;Dietz et al, 2015;Guo and Al Ariss, 2015;Hansen, 2012;Massey et al, 1993;Reitz et al, 2014;Taylor, 1999), there is a lack of international business research using data from online forums and our understanding of the role of online forums in newcomers' labour market integration in a new environment is very limited (Caidi et al, 2014;Tabor and Milfont, 2013).…”