COMPLETELY RANDOM

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An Analysis on the Course-based Study Forums
Students Perspective
By Feng Xue BeiwaiOnline
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Contents

• Background
• Rationale
• Research methods
• Research findings
• Discussion
• Conclusion

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BACKGROUND
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Study Forums

• Essential part of online education
• Unsatisfactory participation
• Research purpose
• To identify reasons for low participation
• To improve forum participation

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Low participation at the course-based forums
?? ?????? ?????? ??????
Course-based study 27 52336 19.54 1938
Skill-based practice 9 126761 47.33 14085
Emotional communication 3 36331 13.57 12110
Administration 4 52372 19.56 13093
Total average Total average 6227
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Post shares
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Research settings

• Two course-based study forums
• New online learners in their first term
• Available in two ways
• Forum
• Tutorial

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RATIONALE
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Features of Forums

• More emotional than academic
• Process rather than result

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Influential Factors

• Importance of the course
• Learners habit of communicating online
• Learners interest in the topics
• Learners time management

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RESEARCH METHOD
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Research Design

• a. 37 valid anonymous questionnaires retrieved
  through SurveyMonkey
• b. 8 expressed their opinions on the forum, real
  name
• (5 of the above learners did a b)
• c. 0 emailed
• d. 67 (from 3 classes) answered paper-based
  questionnaires

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Research Design

• Research points
• How the learners made use of the course-based
  forums
• The reasons for their frequent / infrequent use
  of the forum

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Data Description

• Structure of the online questionnaire
• Questions 1,2 and 3 about participation in
  course-based study forum
• Questions 4,5,6,7 and 10 about suggestions or
  observations on the forum study activities

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RESEARCH FINDINGS
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Frequency of forum visit -1

• Once a day 30.6
• Twice a week 19.4
• lt once a fortnight 19.4
• Twice a day 13.9
• Once a week 8.3
• Once a fortnight 5.6
• Many times a day 2.8

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Frequency of forum visit -2
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Frequency of forum visit -3

• 22 out of the 37 could participate in one form or
  another
• Raising questions
• Answering other learners questions
• Giving comments
• Giving support
• 15 of them have never put up a post

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Result of the paper-based survey-1

• 1.5 think the course-based forums are highly
  helpful for their studies
• 23.1 think the course-based forums are helpful
• 14.9 seldom come to the course-based forums
• 15.4 have never been to the course-based forums

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Result of the paper-based survey-2
Learners s explanation for their low
participation

• Unaware of this form of communication(10.7)
• Not used to this form of communication(40)
• Unable to use the forums because of time
  constraint or limited Internet accessibility(48)

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Other Discoveries

• From the online questionnaire

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Values of the forums

• 1. I like the good English articles and the
  reading guide introduced here. (2)
• The forums provide an opportunity to publish
  learners free writings and the writers can
  exchange comments. (3)
• 2. I can come here to find answers to my
  questions when I am studying on my own.(3)
• 3. Responsible, encouraging and prompt
  moderation. (6)
• 4. The forums broaden our view and enhance our
  learning interest. The forum has become the
  motivating factor in my course study.(3)
• 5. It is a good platform to communicate with
  other learners in English.(2)

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For improvement

• 1. The course study forums are not placed at an
  advantageous location. More propaganda (such as
  pop-up ads or phone messages) is needed to let
  more students know about their existence and to
  keep reminding them of the activities here. (3)
• 2. Some students tend to discuss personal issues
  on the forums, and they should be deleted. The
  very personal comments impress the new comers as
  an enclosed social circle and hinder their
  further involvement.(2)
• 3. I think some students command of English
  doesn't qualify them to revise other students
  articles. They shouldnt be encouraged to give
  more comments. (1)

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Suggestions

• 1. More explanation to the texts should be
  provided, especially to the common problems in
  the textbook exercises, assignments and
  examinations. (5)
• 2. Some grammar and vocabulary teaching can be
  carried out in the forums. Were not strong in
  grammar and its hard to understand the grammar
  books. (2)
• 3. The forums are not attractive enough in form.
  I hope to find more exciting and lively forms of
  activities in the forums. (1)
• 4. Some listening and speaking activities can be
  added to the forums. (1)

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DISCUSSION
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Silent viewers

• Silent viewers exist in most of the frequency
  groups.

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Correlation between frequency of forum visit and
post numbers
Frequency of Forum Visit Percentage of viewers
Many times a day 0
Every half day 0
Once a day 18
Once a week 67
Twice a week 43
Once a fortnight 50
Less than once a fortnight 86
N/A 100
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Forum Visits

• Correlation
• Forum visiting frequency with possibilities of
  being inactive (complete silent viewers)

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(No Transcript)
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Reasons

• Reasons for visiting but not posting are almost
  the same for different kinds of participants.
• Therefore , it is safe to summarise the reasons
  as a whole (in the order of significance)

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Reasons for silence
Reasons
The forum posts are valuable to me to some extent , but I have nothing to share with others (??????????????,??????????? ) 14 41
Have got no time to reply (??????) 9 34
Not confident in my own language quality and afraid of being laughed at (??????,???????) 5 14
Not used to communicating with teachers and peer students on the forum (????????????????) 3 8.8
Time consuming to reply or put up posts given the unstable Internet connection (??????,??/??????) 2 5.9
What people put on the forum is pointless to me (??????????????) 1 2.9
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Result of the paper-based survey

• Learners s explanation for their low
  participation
• Unaware of this form of communication(10.7)
• Not used to this form of communication(40)
• Unable to use the forums because of time
  constraint or limited Internet accessibility(45)

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CONCLUSION
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General Conclusion

• Very helpful to a fraction of learners
• Not well accepted by the majority of new online
  learners

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General Conclusion

• Reasons for non-/low participation
• Unawareness
• Reluctance in learning habit change
• Time constraint
• Technical difficulties
• Lack of topics
• Lack of confidence

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Implications

• We should
• More effective promotion
• Guidance in adaptation
• Guidance in time management
• More encouraging and involving

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Thank you!
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APPENDICES
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SurveyMonkey result presentation
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