Discussion Boards: Win-Win for Instructors and Students?

By Jennifer Bunk, SIOP Blogger

Part 3:  Disadvantages

In my last 2 posts here and here, I introduced how discussion boards can be used in the classroom and reviewed some of their advantages.  Now, let’s move on to their disadvantages.

Disadvantage #1:  It’s not REALLY a discussion

Here are some sample responses from a discussion board where I asked students to define “job success” (click for full image):

The students shared some very insightful comments, but it’s not really a discussion.  If this were to take place in person, we might, for example, more time talking about charisma and discussing whether or not it is necessary in today’s working world.  What I typically see on discussion boards are a series of related comments that often show solid critical thinking, but nonetheless lack the depth, examination, and exploration of a live conversation.

Disadvantage #2:  The front-end design of discussion boards needs updating

I’ve been participating in online discussion boards ever since the era of the BBS, and while they look a little different (at least the graphics are no longer pixelated), the front-end design has not changed much.  It works, but we can do better.  This relates to Disadvantage #1.  If we can design a better discussion board, we can have asynchronous online communications that closely mimic the dynamics of a real, live discussion.  I don’t know what that design would look like, but I DO know the talent, technology, and creativity exist to do it.

There are undoubtedly other disadvantages to discussion boards, but these are my biggest pet peeves.  What do you think?  What are other disadvantages of discussion boards?  How do we design a better discussion board? 

Comments

[Nuts4ideas]

This is a really important discussion! Great post!
I'm attending I/O school online and for me the advantages significantly outweigh the disadvantages. I "know" or "talk to" my class mates online more than I did my classmates in my previous Masters that I got in a brick and mortar school. When you are sitting listening to a lecture and taking notes 95% of the time, you just don't interact with classmates as much as you do in online discussions. However, the one big disadvantage that sucks about online communications to me is the asynchronous nature of it. Some days I’m busy and miss so much of the conversation and feel left behind. Some days I have time and pose questions and respond and hear crickets. In real life, you talk when you have someone near you that is available to converse. This online world doesn’t encompass that element appropriately I think. Instant messenger functions are better for that.
Carrie Zapka

[Jennifer Bunk]

Jeromy,

I love the StackExchange idea - it's gamification at it's best. My husband in a programmer and has been participating in Stack Overflow since 2008. I'm glad to see it's also worked in the Psychology world.

iopsych.se

How about it???

8-)

--Jen

[Jeromy Anglim]

I think StackExchange ( http://stackexchange.com/about ) has the best "discussion board" infrastructure at present. However, StackExchange is a question and answer site. In most cases, I think the Q&A format is more useful than long threaded discussions.

Good features of the StackExchange model include:
Markdown formatting, ability to edit other questions and answers, sorting answers by votes, efficient tagging system, a reputation system that progressively grants editing and moderation privileges, etc.
I talk a little more about it here ( http://jeromyanglim.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/new-psychology-and-cognitive-science.html ).

In terms of more pure discussion technologies, Coursera seem reasonable. At least they have voting and markdown formatting.