Besides being a Spanish language teacher, for the last three years I have hosted and co-coached a VEX Robotics team. Every time I learn a new ISTE standard, I think of how VEX Robotics exemplifies that standard. ISTE Standard for Educators 3 addresses how “Educators inspire students to positively contribute to and responsibly participate in the digital world.” One example how VEX robotics applies ISTE standard 3 is through their forum @ https://www.vexforum.com/ where students engage in VEX robotics discussions with other students, teachers, and experts from all over the world. This forum fosters a community where students engage with others by sharing, supporting, and contributing productively and respectfully online. In order to maintain a respectful community, this forum has a very clear code of conduct that all joining have to read. Another important aspect of this forum is the moderators (mods), and administrators (admins). Moderators and administrators are in charge of promoting and maintaining a supportive and positive digital citizenship environment. They create and organize topics, remove flagged posts, lock topics, and participate in the conversations. In order to participate, one must first create an account by providing an e-mail to create a forum username and a password. In essence, anyone in the world can create an account. Therefore, the need for administrators and moderators overlooking the discussions is of essence to maintaining a safe environment. With new participants entering the digital world there are times when a post may seem or be inappropriate. When this happens, other users can flag the post. When moderators get notification of flagged posts, they review the post, comment, and may remove the post, the thread, or even the person who posted it. The forum is set up to prevent and address issues. On the positive side, as students become proficient contributors to the forum, they too help model and maintain the desired conduct.
Contributing to the success of this forum are the friendly user interface, the ability to post pictures, memes, links and files, the ability to like comments, and the many participation awards students receive.
Friendly user interface allows students to choose from notification, bookmarks, messages and setting preferences.
Ability to earn recognition of good behavior from over 30 badges/awards. Notice that one of the badges like “read guidelines” and “completed new user tutorial” promote good digital citizenship skills.
The forum provides a summary of activity.
Students enjoy contributing to subject relevant topics, such as programming.
I have been able to observe how students’ participation in vexforum has been a real, positive, engaging, and educational experience for students from all around the world. Because robotics is an extracurricular activity that happens outside of school, the students I coach, do not receive grades when they participate in this forum, nor do I have to monitor their interaction. Furthermore, not all students read the code of conduct nor contribute, but rather limit their use to reading and liking comments like the common social network. Nevertheless, this forum inspires students to positively contribute to and responsibly participate digitally in a global community. Educators who wish their students to participate in this forum need to check first with their local school regarding permissions and guidelines, and take the necessary measures to help students contribute and interact properly. One way to do so is to have students write and share how they are contributing to the forum. Even if the teacher does not read all the posts, there is accountability as students self-report their activity in the forum.
Subject-focused and site-specific forums
Subject focused and Site-Specific are two kinds of forums that can provide middle and high school students a place to discuss topics by contributing with information, questions, and answers. Forums allow students to learn from and collaborate with other students and experts. Some examples of popular subject focused forums are physicsforums, worldliteratureforum, github, codeacademy, and vexforum, amongst many others. While most of the subject focused forums are available to the public, Site-specific forums provide students a private and personalized community. An example of a site-specific forum is a school or a school district forum. In these examples, students can create a password protected forum where students can collaborate with and learn from other students, teachers and administrators’ school and/or district wide.
Forums vs Social Networks
The difference between a forum and social network is explained in a blog titled Understanding the difference between Forum, Blogs, and Social Networks. In this blog, a forum is compared to a “social mixer, where everyone is at equal level, milling about and discussing with others.” In contrast, a social network is compared to a “topic table at a conference luncheon” that allows participants to organize “around a person’s relationships or interests, rather than just focused on topic.” Essentially, forums are focused on topic, while social networks are focused on people.
In this light, the forum is most relevant in an education setting, where the topics of discussion focus on the subject matter.
The article Individual and social benefits of online discussion forums (2015) explains that although forums seem old-fashioned as they are being overshadowed by social networks such as Facebook and Twitter they “offer something different.” This research focuses on how online discussion forums have 5 positive and unique highlights.
· Online discussion forums have benefits at individual and society level.
· They are positively linked to well-being for stigmatised group members.
· Online discussion forum use is linked to offline civic engagement in related areas.
· Identification with other forum users mediates the above relationships.
· Online discussion forums are of greater applied importance than has been realized.
One element that this research considers key and beneficial is the anonymity of forum interactions. Participants can “lurk” before contributing, thus reducing the feeling of threat. However, in an education setting, teachers and administrators would be able to link user names to e-mail addresses, but students can maintain the anonymity amongst peers.
Forum Pros & Cons
In the research What to expect, and how to improve online discussion forums: the instructor’s perspective (2019) reveal the following difficulties in using discussion forums in education, as perceived by the instructors.
- Forum interface makes it difficult for students to know whom and how to respond
- Lack of participation in forums as students are drawn to social networks
- Lack of appealing features causes low student motivation to participate in the forum
- The forum needs mediation
- Instructors need to promote student participation
- Instructors find it difficult to keep up with the discussions taking place
- There is a lot of work for the instructors, such as answer comments, elaborate, evaluate, promote discussions, moderate and intervene in discussions.
This research also includes suggestions for that can increase participation and engagement in the forums.
- Adding gamification features and participation awards
- Adding files to the comments and social media features
- Create an appealing, yet easy interface
- Include features that allow users to “like” comments
- Adding features that assist the evaluation process of students’ comments
- Full table of Forum improvements https://jisajournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s13174-019-0120-0
In summary, this research concludes that online discussion forums
- provide significant opportunities for students to actively engage in their learning process through participation.
- the student-instructor interaction is an essential part of this process
- forums expand student’s possibilities for exchanging ideas.
The study, The effect of online discussion forums on student learning and student perception of learning in a science course at the community college level, determined “the effectiveness of online discussion forums in an upper level science course at the community college level in terms of student satisfaction and student achievement.” While the findings of this study are focused on higher education, the educational and engagement factor are also relevant in k-12 education, especially as one of the goals of integrating forums is to provide opportunities for students to learn, through real experiences, digital citizenship skills while engaging in educational online content specific discussions. The study concluded that “Online discussion forums are an effective method of active learning that when executed successfully can provide students with a valuable and enjoyable learning experience that develops understanding and knowledge through metacognition.”
Knowing the pros and cons can help educators implement successful forums. In the article Structuring Online Discussion Forums, Arlene Vinion Dubiel explains specific strategies that educators can implement when designing and implementing discussion forums. Start with a clear purpose, determine the expectations, and limiting the number of threads to promote deeper conversations. Always model digital citizenship and show your presence in the discussions.
Forum software
The article 11 best forum software to build an online community in 2021 is helpful in providing an understanding of what makes a great forum software. It includes five key features to consider when choosing a forum platform. 1) Profile customization, 2) Powerful text editor, 3) Private messaging, 4) comment signatures, 5) Achievement systems. In summary, it is important to look at the pros and cons of each software and decide based on the goals and experience that are most important for the users.
Out of the 11 forum platforms highlighted in this article, I find that Discourse has the necessary features needed to build a safe and appealing forum community in a School District. Discourse offers an open-source software platform that facilitates building online forums. Detailed information about Discourse is found in https://www.discourse.org/about Some examples of popular forums being used today are listed in discourse.org/customers Forums that are specific for Online Education Communities are included in https://blog.discourse.org/2016/08/discourse-for-online-education-communities/
Discourse offers a free self-hosting version with open-source. It has a modern look, while offering a simple and easy to use interface. It has a spam-blocking feature with two-factor authentication that strengthens the accounts security. It includes features that support user moderation and community management. It also offers “custom badges and emojis” to create a positive and encouraging atmosphere.
Conclusion
There is much information which confirms that online discussion forums can inspire students to positively contribute to and responsibly participate in the digital world. Nevertheless, such benefits require a significant time investment. Private organizations that have successful forums, such as vexforum.com have not only paid moderators and administrators, but also participating educators and volunteers who help ensure a positive and productive experience. Fortunately, there are several online education communities already established. To guide students through the path to becoming responsible contributors in the digital world, educators can find venues that already have reputable subject-focused forums which support their disciplines. Another option is for schools or School Districts to use a site-specific forum to create a safe community where students can build relationships, and engage in productive exchanges with others while learning, through participation, how to positively contribute to and responsibly participate in the digital world. Setting up a school or district wide forum can serve as a sandbox for students to learn and practice digital citizenship skills, while engaging in the community and discussing subject specific topics.
References
de Lima, D.P.R., Gerosa, M.A., Conte, T.U. et al. What to expect, and how to improve online discussion forums: the instructors’ perspective. Journal of Internet Services and Applications 10, 22 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13174-019-0120-0
ISTE Standards for Educators. Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/standards/for-educators
Murray, J. & Stinger, S. (n.d.) Top 10 Study Group Forums and Websites for High School Students. askatechteacher.com
Nabilla R. (2021). 11 Best Forum Software to Build an Online Community in 2021. https://www.hostinger.com/tutorials/best-forum-software
Owyang, J., (2008). Understanding the difference between Forums, blogs, and Social Networks. https://web-strategist.com/blog/2008/01/28/understanding-the-difference-between-forums-blogs-and-social-networks/
Pendry, L. F., & Salvatore, J. (2015). Individual and social benefits of online discussion forums. Computer in Human Behavior V50 p. 211-220. SienceDirect.com https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.03.067
Ryan, R. S., (2013). The effect of online discussion forums on student learning and student perception of learning in a science course at the community college level. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/207/
