making discussion forums work

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Making discussion forums work Benoît Guilbaud [email protected] @benguilbaud Benoît Guilbaud, The University of Manchester (UK), 2012

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These are the slides accompanying my presentation "Making discussions forums work" at the University of Manchester on 2nd November 2012. They might be of interest to language and translation teachers looking for ideas to get their discussion forums off the ground. Please check the provisional proposed model and add your comments at: http://bit.ly/QYIozR

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Page 1: Making discussion forums work

Making discussion forums work

Benoît Guilbaud [email protected]

@benguilbaud

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This work is licensed under theAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported

Creative Commons Licence (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).To view a copy of this license, visit:

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/deed.en_US.

Benoît Guilbaud, 2012

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Picture by pennstatelive via flickr.com

“More group work”

“I don’t know the people on my course”

“I feel isolated when I work”

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Peer-feedback

Face-to-face

DistanceSocial

Sharing

Transparency

Openness

Open learning

Error correction

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Context

25 final year undergraduates (C1)

English ⇢ French translation (L1 ⇢ L2)

September 2011 - March 2012

Weekly contributions to discussion forums

18 texts18 weeks

1 hour / weekcontact time

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Weekly taskSharing part of the

homework on the forumsCommenting on one

another’s contributions

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The study

Collect student feedback on use of OADs for peer-feedback

Measure student engagement with OADs

Gauge if interactions lead to collaborative learning

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Methodology

3 feedback questionnaires assessing

expectations & satisfaction

pre / mid / post-study

quantitative + open questions

Section(2(–(Social(networking(sites(7(for!all!purposes!other!than!translation

2a.$Are$you$a$member$of$one$or$more$social$networking$sites$(Facebook,$Twitter,$Google+,$etc.)?$Which$one(s)?

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2b.$If$you$answered$‘yes’$in$2a,$please$place$one$tick$per$line$in$the$following$table:

When using social networking sites (not

for translation purposes)

Never Rarely Sometimes Often Very often Always

Not applicable / don’t know

I log in to my existing member account.

I read other members’ contributions and existing discussions.

I post contributions in response to other members’ activity.

I engage in longer discussions (more than 2 posts) with other members.

When another member has a question, I try and answer it.

Using$social$media$in$an$undergraduate$translation$class$–$a$case$studyPreliminary$questionnaire$X$Benoît$Guilbaud$X$2011

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Methodology

Collection and analysis of

contributions to OADs using

Murphy’s collaboration model (2004)

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Findings

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Feedback

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Feedback

March 2012: “The platform was useful”

92%

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Page 13: Making discussion forums work

“I think it works really well and is easy to access.”

“Working really well - maybe we could have a similar thing on other modules.”

“It would be useful to have it for other courses.”

“Very useful.”

Feedback

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“Not enough students use it for it to be wholly effective. I think most students just

rely on the contributions of others.”

“It is just down to ourselves to make more of an effort this term, which I will attempt to do.”

Feedback

“Very useful. No improvements needed.”

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Page 15: Making discussion forums work

Engagement

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Contributions per week

0

13

25

38

50

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Num

ber o

f con

tribu

tions

to fo

rum

s

Week number

IdealActual

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Page 17: Making discussion forums work

Analysis of contributions

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Murphy’s collaboration model(2004)

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Murphy’s collaboration model (2004)

A Producing shared artefacts

B Building shared goals and purposes

C Co-constructing shared perspectives and meanings

P Accommodating or reflecting the perspectives of others

I Articulating individual perspectives

S Social presence

Colla

bora

tion

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A Producing shared artefacts

B Building shared goals and purposes

C Co-constructing shared perspectives and meanings

P Accommodating or reflecting the perspectives of others

I Articulating individual perspectives

S Social presence

Colla

bora

tion

Distribution of contributions per category (% of total)

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Distribution of contributions per category (% of total)

A Producing shared artefacts 0%

B Building shared goals and purposes 0%

C Co-constructing shared perspectives and meanings 33%

P Accommodating or reflecting the perspectives of others 2%

I Articulating individual perspectives 23%

S Social presence 41%

Colla

bora

tion

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Articulating individual perspectives (I)

A

Summarising or reporting on content without reference to

the perspectives of others (S)5%B

Summarising or reporting on content without reference to

the perspectives of others (S)5%

C

Summarising or reporting on content without reference to

the perspectives of others (S)5%

P

Statement of personal opinion or beliefs making no reference

to perspectives of others (O)18%I

Statement of personal opinion or beliefs making no reference

to perspectives of others (O)18%

S

Statement of personal opinion or beliefs making no reference

to perspectives of others (O)18%

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Accommodating or reflecting the perspectives of others (P)

A Coordinating perspectives (C) 1%

B

Coordinating perspectives (C) 1%

B

Introducing new perspectives (N) 0%C Introducing new perspectives (N) 0%

P Indirectly disagreeing with challenging statements made by another participant (I) 1%

I

Indirectly disagreeing with challenging statements made by another participant (I) 1%

IDirectly disagreeing with challenging statements made by

another participant (D) 1%SDirectly disagreeing with challenging statements made by

another participant (D) 1%

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Co-constructing shared perspectives and meanings (C)

A Sharing advice (S) 0%A

Responding to questions (R) 11%B Responding to questions (R) 11%B

Provoking thought and discussion (P) 0%C Provoking thought and discussion (P) 0%

P Soliciting feedback (F) 9%PPosing rhetorical questions (Q) 0%

IPosing rhetorical questions (Q) 0%

IAsking for clarification/ elaboration (A) 10%

SAsking for clarification/ elaboration (A) 10%

S Sharing information and resources (I) 4%

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Picture by HckySo via flickr.com

Identified issues

Page 26: Making discussion forums work

Identified issues

Lack of a common goal

Little reference to perspectives of others

Near-absence of disagreements

50% of questions left unanswered

Near-absence of source referencing & sharing

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Other issues

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Interface

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Impact of (non)assessment

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Impact of assessment on number of contributions

Guilbaud, 2012 McNeilly & Zhok, 2012

Level: BA Level: MA

Blended learning Distance learning

Not assessed Assessed (10% of unit)

Feedback mostly positive (92%) Feedback “overwhelmingly positive”

Average no. of contributionsper student per week = 0,27

Average no. of contributionsper student per week ≃1

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Page 33: Making discussion forums work

Suggested model

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!Work in progress

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Suggested criteria for online collaboration

!Work in progress

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Suggested criteria for online collaboration

!Work in progress

Little reference to perspectives of others

Near-absence of disagreements

Lack of a common goal

50% of questions left unanswered

Near-absence of source referencing & sharing

Page 36: Making discussion forums work

Add your comments and suggestions at:

!

http://bit.ly/QYIozR

I think this could be improved by...

© B

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Page 37: Making discussion forums work

Couros, A., 2011. Why networked learning matters. Education in a Changing Environment (ECE) 6th International Conference, Creativity and Engagement in Higher Education, 6-8 July 2011, University of Salford, Greater Manchester, UK.

McNeilly, E. & Zhok, A., 2012. The Online Discussion Board for Translation - An Undergraduate MFL Perspective for the Study of Italian and Russian. In: LLAS: 7th e-learning symposium. University of Southampton, 26-27 January 2012.

Murphy, E., 2004. Recognising and promoting collaboration in an online asynchronous discussion. In: British Journal of Educational Technology, 35(4) pp.421–431.

Wheeler, S., Yeomans, P. and Wheeler, D., 2008. The Good, the Bad and the Wiki: Evaluating Student Generated Content as a Collaborative Learning Tool. In: British Journal of Educational Technology, 39(6), pp.987-995.

Wheeler, S., 2012. Digital Pedagogy: Content is a Tyrant, Context is King. In: NAACE 2012 Annual Conference, 9 March 2012, Leicester, United Kingdom.

References