Using Forums for Learning

Using forums for learning

Context Guide and Tutorial

Context

byRonnie BurtJuly 7, 2010

Message boards, or forums, are commonplace on many websites around the web. Many people turn them when planning a vacation, for advice, or to get help.

Forums are increasingly popular in the classroom as well as a way to organize and foster collaboration among students.

Using Forums For Learning

Here is a quick list of ideas on how forums can be used in the classroom:

Class discussion – Try asking an open ended question on a regular basis. Have students make an initial reply and then follow up replies to two or more of their classmates
A virtual parking lot – Student can ask questions whenever they may need and get help from teachers and students alike
Group management – During a project, groups can use forums to organize thoughts and share updates periodically
Turning in assignments – Students can write responses to essay and short answer questions as a thread in a forum giving all students in the class the opportunity to review and learn from each other

How else have you used or do youenvisionusing forums to improve student learning?

Examples of Popular Forums

Australian broadband news and information

Australian Ford Forums
Skyscraper City
The education Forum

What is a Online Fourm?

AnInternet forum, ormessage board, is anonlinediscussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages.[1]They differ fromchat roomsin that messages are at least temporarily archived. Also, depending on the access level of a user or the forum set-up, a posted message might need to be approved by a moderator before it becomes visible.

Forums have a specific set of jargon associated with them; e.g. a single conversation is called a "thread".

A discussion forum is hierarchical or tree-like in structure: a forum can contain a number of subforums, each of which may have several topics. Within a forum's topic, each new discussion started is called a thread, and can be replied to by as many people as so wish.

Depending on the forum's settings, users can be anonymous or have to register with the forum and then subsequentlylog inin order to post messages. On most forums, users do not have to log in to read existing messages.

Terminology

Forum structure

A forum consists of a tree like directory structure. The top end is "Categories". A forum can be divided into categories for the relevant discussions. Under the categories are sub-forums and these sub-forums can further have more sub-forums. Thetopics(commonly calledthreads) come under the lowest level of sub-forums and these are the places under which members can start their discussions orposts. Logically forums are organized into a finite set of generic topics (usually with one main topic) driven and updated by a group known asmembers, and governed by a group known asmoderators.[citation needed]It can also have a graph structure.[8]All message boards will use one of three possible display formats. Each of the three basic message board display formats: Non-Threaded/Semi-Threaded/Fully Threaded, has its own advantages and disadvantages. If messages are not related to one another at all a Non-Threaded format is best. If a user has a message topic and multiple replies to that message topic a semi-threaded format is best. If a user has a message topic and replies to that message topic, and replies to replies, then a fully threaded format is best.[9]

Thread

See also:conversation threading

Athread(sometimes called atopic) is a collection of posts, usually displayed from oldest to latest, although this is typically configurable: Options for newest to oldest and for a threaded view (a tree-like view applying logical reply structure before chronological order) can be available.A thread is defined by a title, an additional description that may summarize the intended discussion, and an opening or original post (common abbreviationOP, which can also meanoriginal poster), which opens whatever dialogue or makes whatever announcement the poster wished. A thread can contain any number of posts, including multiple posts from the same members, even if they are one after the other.

A thread is contained in a forum, and may have an associated date that is taken as the date of the last post (options to order threads by other criteria are generally available). When a member posts in a thread it will jump to the top since it is the latest updated thread. Similarly, other threads will jump in front of it when they receive posts. When a member posts in a thread for no reason but to have it go to the top, it is referred to as abumporbumping. Threads that are important but rarely receive posts arestickyed (or, in some software, "pinned"). Asticky threadwill always appear in front of normal threads, often in its own section. A "threaded discussion group" is simply any group of individuals who use a forum for threaded, or asynchronous, discussion purposes. The group may or may not be the only users of the forum.

A thread's popularity is measured on forums in reply (total posts minus one, the opening post, in most default forum settings) counts. Some forums also track page views. Threads meeting a set number of posts or a set number of views may receive a designation such as "hot thread" and be displayed with a different icon compared to other threads. This icon may stand out more to emphasize the thread. If the forum's users have lost interest in a particular thread, it becomes adead thread.

Post

Apostis a user-submitted message enclosed into a block containing the user's details and the date and time it was submitted. Members are usually allowed to edit or delete their own posts. Posts are contained in threads, where they appear as boxes one after another. The first post starts the thread; this may be called the TS (thread starter) or OP (original post). Posts that follow in the thread are meant to continue discussion about that post, or respond to other replies; it is not uncommon for discussions to be derailed.

On Western forums, the classic way to show a member's own details (such as name and avatar) has been on the left side of the post, in a narrow column of fixed width, with the post controls located on the right, at the bottom of the main body, above the signature block. In more recent forum software implementations, the Asian style of displaying the members' details above the post has been copied.

Posts have an internal limit usually measured in characters. Often one is required to have a message of minimum length of 10 characters. There is always an upper limit but it is rarely reached – most boards have it at either 10,000, 20,000, 30,000, or 50,000 characters.

Most forums keep track of a user's postcount. The postcount is a measurement of how many posts a certain user has made.[16]Users with higher postcounts are often considered more reputable than users with lower postcounts. Some forums have disabled postcounts in the hopes that doing so will reduce the emphasis on quantity over quality of information.

Using SIMON Forums At TCC

The Simon forums are structured into 3 sections

General – Whole School

Subject – All students in one Subject area ieTen English

Class -- All student in one class such as Ten Red English

This PL will focus on Class and Subject Forums.

The general Forum is coordinated via the SIMON administrators.

All of these instructions will be carried out in the Learning Areas of SIMON.

Setting up a Forum (This Can be for a whole Semester or Term)

Go to Learning Areas
Go to the Class you’re interested in
Select ForumsLast icon in the list.
Choose Maintain Forums
Select Add New
Set the Forum Title
Choose Class Forum Or Subject Forum (Class is for all Students)
Leave the Allow anonymous Posting Tick Empty
Choose the Start Date and End Date (Set that to be a time in the Future)
Click Save.

Add a New Topic

Once you have created the Forum you can then add topics

Go to Learning Areas
Go to the Class
Go to Forums
Go to View Forums
Go to Add New Topics
Enter the Subject or Title.
Enter the Opening Question or Topic into the Message Box
Once complete select Post.

Using the Forum

Go to Learning Areas
Go to the Class
Go to Forums
Go to View Forums
Select the Forum
Select The Topic
Enter Your Response

EXAMPLE

Anonymous:

Hi all,
I have a co-worker who constantly uses "went" instead of "gone". For example, "Have the payments went out for these vendor id's??". I know it is incorrect grammar, but I can't explain to her exactly why (it has been too long since I was in school).Can someone please give me the reasoning behind using gone instead of went in this instance?
Thanks in advance!

20th February 2007

Marius Hancu:

Your sentence uses the present perfect tense which is formed as described here:

Wentissimple pastand has nothing to do with that context.

20th February 2007Veteran Member11,673

YoongLiat:

AnonymousHi all,
I have a co-worker who constantly uses "went" instead of "gone". For example, "Have the payments went out for these vendor id's??". I know it is incorrect grammar, but I can't explain to her exactly why (it has been too long since I was in school).Can someone please give me the reasoning behind using gone instead of went in this instance?
Thanks in advance!

After 'have' a past participle should be used. For example, 'I have eaten', 'I have not eaten', 'I have not done my work', 'They have gone to church", etc. Use common usages, which she is familiar with. I think this is the best way to convince her.
Therefore, in your example, 'Have ... gone ...'
I hope this helps.

20th February 2007Veteran Member7,039

Anonymous:

"Have the payments went out for these vendor id's??".
Start with "Have", means present perfect is used. So, "have" in the question sentence must be near with the Past Participle (Verb 3) , NOT VERB 2 such as "went" she uses.
You may say, no one uses Verb2 in the Present Perfect sentence like you, everyone use Past Participle. But tell her "you can use that, no problem. But only in spoken not written"

20th February 2007

Grammar Geek:

Just a side note here: I have rarely encountered a person (that is, an adult, native speaker) who enjoys having their grammar corrected. I'm afraid it may be met with embarrassment (at the least) to outright resentment and feeling that you are being "superior."
Perhaps the better thing to do is model the correct grammar and say back "Yes, those invoices have gone out." If she ever asks YOU why you say it that way, then you can explain.

20th February 2007Veteran Member25,714

Anonymous:

THat is wrong, YOu say Have you seen this before not Have you saw this before

14th May 2008