Module 8- Final Reflections

I thought that the last readings that were assigned were the most interesting. I was surprised that it seemed that hardly any other students chose to discuss the Hara, Bonk & Angeli article in the discussion board. Could it be that because it was the longer article that they did not read it?

The Hara, Bonk & Angeli article “Content Analysis of Online Discussion” raised some interesting issues regarding advantages and disadvantages with discussion boards. They stated that in their study rarely did students ever seem to have “real heated” discussions which led to taking sides, negotiating or compromising on an issue. The article stated: “There clearly is a pressing need to develop pedagogy that motivates students to electronically participate in class discussions beyond standard course requirements. Such pedagogical issues must be addressed before anyone can claim electronic learning success.” I totally find this to be true – too often people are agreeing with or complementing each other’s posts or they are sidetracked from the original topic.

The authors also state that a “lack of time reading all posted messages” is a problem which led to a “one-way, instead of two-way interaction.” I thought that their suggestion of having students divided into smaller discussion groups is a great idea! With this strategy students are not as likely to feel left out.


I have read that supposedly the anonymity of students in a discussion board helps timid or students who lack self-esteem to have the courage to post their thoughts and ideas that they may not discuss in a face-to-face class. I am not sure if this is always the case. There still seems to be those who dominate a discussion board online and there are still those who sit back and post only the minimal amount either because they do not feel they are knowledgeable enough or they may not believe they are articulate or because ???