Education Commons^™

Enhancing Student Learning Through Discussion Boards And Blogs, Barbara Rosenfeld, Sharon O’Connor-Petruso, Jeremy Bletterman, Isis Shorter

NERA Conference Proceedings 2011

Discussion boards and blogs are Web 2.0 tools that purportedly enhance learning. Teachers hope that the exchange of ideas and opinions that occur in these environments will help students to form, solidify, or change their own ideas on a given topic. The purpose of the study is to determine if participation in a discussion board helps students’ perceptions of learning, particularly in forming opinions, and if active participation aids in the acquisition of course objectives. Results indicate that active discussion board participation helped students’ perceptions of learning as well as acquisition of course objectives.