Managing Online Discussion Forums for Collaborative Learning

Abstract

In recent years, there has been significant growth in online education (Schrum & Hong, 2002; Evans & Haase, 2001). The number of academic journals devoted to online education also suggests that researchers are paying much attention to advancing online educational methods. One promising area of investigation is collaborative learning, which involves students learning as a group (Zhang & Nunamaker, 2003), much of which takes place electronically without face-to-face interaction (Townsend, DeMarie, & Hendrickson, 1998). One popular tool used to support collaborative learning is the online discussion forum (ODF), which allows asynchronous interaction between participants. This paper describes the experiences of using ODFs for collaborative learning at Universitas 21 Global (U21G), a newly established e-university.