collaborative learning environment. It may help students to interact with information but not with the instructor or other students. This paper will examine some of the problems associated with current discussion models and then propose a model that aims to encourage greater collaboration and makes it easier to structure, manage and assess online discussion activities.
2. Limitations in existing online forum models There are only a few models for online discussions with limited variation. The discussion area provides a platform where participants can share ideas by posting a message to initiate a discussion or to respond to already posted questions or messages of ongoing discussion. One variation is whether the messages can be viewed in a linear or threaded fashion. In a learning environment, the facilitator that moderates the process may be a tutor, instructor or teacher. The facilitator explains the purpose and sets up the protocols such as discussion cycle, duration and assessment weight. The facilitator often starts the discussion by posting a question. Students answer the question in the form of a discussion posting and may be required to comment on other responders posting as well (Rossman 1999, Laurillard 2002).
Electronic Journal on e-Learning Volume 2 Issue 1 (February 2004) 11-18 The following problems can be associated with such model(s).
Open-ended discussions may result in nonproductive learning activity. Students are likely to lose interest where there is an overload of information that doesn't have direct application or use (Harasim 1995). If there is assessment associated with the discussion question students may be tempted to copy text from different sources to perform the activity rather than engage with the question. This does not help students to enhance their analytical and critical thinking. At the same time long unstructured responses can result in a greater information burden for other responders.
Lurking is another big problem that is often a lack of participation by students particularly where it is a new communication medium (Harasim 1995). Another common observation is that active students take an interest in discussion based learning whereas passive students tend to find it less attractive. This may be because it is a text-based, self-initiated learning environment. Research proposes a number of strategies to hold students interest and to enhance their critical thinking (Muilenburg & Berge 2002) but current technologies and models do not necessarily support them. Students become confused or lose their interest when a discussion is ill-structured or there is no process designed to enhance their critical thinking (MacKnight 2000). Low participation in discussion forums may also be linked with students' own learning styles. Some students strongly believe in individual learning. In that case, the existing discussion forum model, based on a collaborative approach, may not be appropriate. (Sae-Chin & Resta 2003).
responses is more time consuming and subjective when the task is not well defined (Burford & Cooper 2003).
Current discussion models do not include many management features that can assist in an educational setting. Features useful in educational settings include access control, discussion availability duration, assessment weight, and archive options. For example, a facilitator may want to release discussion responses only after he or she has added feedback and the last student has responded. After this the activity may continue where the students are required to compare their responses. This can be a difficult process with current available software and tools. Typically there are no start or stop controls available and the facilitator does this by informing the students or closing the discussion topic manually. The H20 project (H2OProject 2003) allows facilitators to set some deadlines for submission of posting but it does not have the other features discussed in this paper. It is freely available at http://h2o.law.harvard.edu.
13 can be biased, time consuming and difficult to integrate into the main assessment system. Peer grading can provide strong motivation to do quality work, but students are often uncomfortable grading one another (Salter, 2000). A simple rating system (eg. excellent, good, fair, poor) can be used or students may be required to make only positive critiques (leaving the negative comments to the instructor). Another assessment technique is text mining (Fujitani & et al 2003). However this example is used for self assessment and only to see overall discussion patterns but it is not linked to actual student assessment. Other assessment methods are provided in Salter (2000).
However, whichever technique is chosen, greater management by the discussion model can make marking easier, particularly given the volume of responses generated by most discussions.
3. Template based discussion system The structure of online discussions is an important aspect involved with encouraging collaborative learning. It requires planning and management (Mason 1998, Laurillard 2002). To assist in this the following web-based online discussion model (Figure 1) is proposed.
1. Facilitator: the instructor or moderator who controls the online discussion as controller. 2. Responders: students who responds to facilitator's question/task or other students' postings. 3. Discussion Template: discussion questions and stored settings from the control panel.
4. Control Panel: allows the facilitator to configure each discussion. 5. Discussion Forum: a password protected web interface where responders post their messages. On submission each message is automatically saved. 6. Assessment: allows the facilitator to access different responses and mark them.
Figure 2: Application homepage A facilitator starts the activity by either creating or choosing an online discussion template stored in the Discussion Model Templates database.
Figure 3: Discussion template builder The Discussion Template Building environment allows the facilitator to specify the elements required for a particular online discussion and then save it as an online discussion template.
Figure 4: Discussion control panel The control panel component allows the facilitator to set parameters for the discussion such as release and finish time, anonymity, assessment weight, public/private, attachment options, archive options and whether the discussion is threaded or unthreaded.
Figure 5: Discussion forum for students Responses in the forum follow the structure set by the facilitator.
17 (Muilenburg & Berge 2002). The proposed model will help enforce this by providing a template-building environment for the facilitator. Rather than settle for questions that concentrate on recall (eg. give a definition of X?), more creative examples can be built into the templates. These might include ! Rating alternative information sources ! Evaluating a list of alternatives based on multiple criteria. ! Electronic Brainstorming for a specific question or issue. (Salter, 2002) ! Group outlining to generate or group ideas into a familiar hierarchical structure. (GroupSystems.com, 2002) ! Providing an annotated bibliography ! Voting and survey questions In particular, this will assist those teachers who are new to online discussions to set discussion questions that meaningful encourage evaluation and/or deep learning.
Specific and well-structured discussions questions are more likely to hold students' interest especially when there is some assessment weighting attached to it. Student work is not necessarily discarded when the semester is over. With permission, this work can be analysed or built upon by students in future semesters. By supplying samples of good quality previous work the authors have noted anecdotally that the standard for subsequent semesters continues to increase. In other cases, students have analysed the previous work in a new manner. For example, student ratings on an issue from a previous discussion can be collated and graphed.
Discussion management is a challenging aspect of online discussions, especially in an educational environment (Burford & Cooper, 2003). It is also a very time consuming job (Laurillard, 2002). For example, without a set ending date, discussions can be viewed as 'never-ending' and the purpose can be lost. Having set opening and closing times for a discussion helps avoid information overload and keeps students focused on the task (Salter, 2000). The proposed system allows the facilitator to have much more control over the management of the discussion.
Assessment in discussion forums is gaining importance (Mochizuki, 2003). In educational environments, assessment is linked to learning outcomes which in turn are linked to learning activities (Burford & Cooper, 2003). The proposed system assists teachers if they want to include assessment weightings and provides a facility for marking. Rather than simply using a quantitative system for marking (eg. number of posts) a more qualitative approach can be taken. For example, students may have to submit a draft version for others to critique before producing a final version (Salter, 2000). Using the system both the final version and the critiques could easily be marked.
5. Future research This paper focuses on a work in progress. The real test will come when the proposed model is applied in a higher education environment. Using an action research model, the following questions will be answered ! Do students find the forum easier to use and follow? Does it support and enhance their level of collaboration? Does it improve the quality of their work? ! Do staff prefer the forum to create and manage online discussions? Does it minimize their effort in managing online discussions? ! Is reusability of discussion templates good idea in practical sense? Will it save time and effort? ! What is the best framework to reuse the outcomes of students' postings?
6. Conclusion There are some problems associated with the current models of online discussions in higher education. Discussions can end up as an open-ended, non-productive learning activity, there may be a lack of students' participation, discussions may not be well structured or easy to initiate and assess by staff. The proposed system has been designed to help overcome these problems. This may lead to better outcomes for both students and staff. These expectations are going to be tested through action research where the proposed system will be tested by faculty and students.
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