THE CONTINUING PEDAGOGICAL VALUE OF DISCUSSION FORUMS IN OPEN AND DISTANCE LEARNING AND FACE-TO-FACE CONTEXTS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25159/0256-8853/571Keywords:
discussion forums, evaluation, Social Work, Public Health, public good professionalismAbstract
Two educators at separate higher education institutions − University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and University of the Western Cape (UWC) in South Africa jointly evaluated the use of asynchronous discussion forums in their courses, offered respectively as part of face-to-face and distance mode courses. These very different discussion forums were evaluated using two existing frameworks: Cecez-Kecmanovic and Webb’s (2000) Communicative Model of Collaborative Learning (CMCL), which is based on Habermas’s concept of the ideal language act, and Walker and McLean’s (2010) Educational Arrangements for Educating Human Development Public Good Professionals. The evaluation focused on whether the dominant purposes and content of interaction resulted in critical intellectual debate focused on learning, and encouraged social good professionalism. Findings showed that more than half the discussion posts in both courses were focused on learning through debate, argumentation and reflection, and that the Social Work course showed significant evidence of developing public good professionals. It was concluded that discussion forums offer valuable pedagogical potential for both distance and face-to-face students in higher education. Recommendations are made that other educators, especially in the open and distance learning space, consider engaging in joint evaluative reflection for improving practice.Â
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Accepted 2015-11-06
Published 2015-11-06
