Article
English Full Article Citation
Shellyanne Wilson , The University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago
https://doi.org/10.35564/jmbe.2023.0007
While asynchronous discussion forums have been widely implemented across different learning environments, there have been mixed findings in terms of their impact on student performance. This study aims to investigate the impact of an asynchronous lecturer-supported discussion forum used to augment traditional Face-to-Face course delivery, on student performance in a Quantitative Methods course taught to business students in the Caribbean. An asynchronous support discussion forum was set up for a group project designed for students to apply quantitative techniques to solve real-world problems. The quantity and quality of student participation and lecturer participation in the discussion forum, represented by student questions and lecturer questions, were investigated to determine their impact on student performance, measured by group project marks for 109 student groups over three academic years. The results showed that neither student participation nor lecturer participation in the asynchronous support discussion forum led to significantly better student performance by way of group project mark. Possible reasons for this finding that is inconsistent with the literature include issues such as voluntary student participation in the forum, multiple other avenues to obtain lecturer support, and the use of questions to represent participation. The study’s conceptual framework points to the importance of specifying the learning environment, learning objective, discussion forum type and engagement type in examining the impact of a discussion forum.
Keywords
asynchronous lecturer-supported discussion forum, augmented learning, quantitative methods
Si bien los foros de discusión asincrónicos se han implementado ampliamente en diferentes entornos de aprendizaje, ha habido hallazgos mixtos en términos de su impacto en el desempeño de los estudiantes. Este estudio tiene como objetivo investigar el impacto de un foro de discusión asincrónico, impartido por un profesor, que se utiliza para aumentar el rendimiento de los estudiantes en cursos presenciales tradicionales en un curso de Métodos Cuantitativos, impartido a estudiantes de negocios en el Caribe. Se creó un foro de discusión de soporte asíncrono para un proyecto grupal, diseñado para que los estudiantes aplicaran técnicas cuantitativas para resolver problemas del mundo real. Se investigó la cantidad y calidad de la participación de los estudiantes y la participación del profesor en el foro de discusión, representada por las preguntas de los estudiantes y las preguntas del profesor, para determinar su impacto en el desempeño de los estudiantes, medido por las calificaciones de proyectos grupales para 109 grupos de estudiantes durante tres años académicos. Los resultados mostraron que ni la participación de los estudiantes ni la participación de los profesores en el foro de discusión de apoyo asincrónico condujo a un rendimiento significativamente mejor de los estudiantes por medio de la calificación del proyecto grupal. Las posibles razones de este hallazgo que es inconsistente con la literatura incluyen cuestiones como la participación voluntaria de los estudiantes en el foro, muchas otras vías para obtener el apoyo de los profesores y el uso de preguntas para representar la participación. El marco conceptual del estudio señala la importancia de especificar el entorno de aprendizaje, el objetivo de aprendizaje, el tipo de foro de discusión y el tipo de participación al examinar el impacto de un foro de discusión.
Palabras clave
foro de discusión asincrónico apoyado por un profesor, aprendizaje aumentado, métodos cuantitativos
Received
12 December 2022
Accepted
8 January 2023
Copyright
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license.
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