Abstract

RUIZ-CORBELLA, Marta; DIESTRO FERNANDEZ, Alfonso  and  GARCIA-BLANCO, Miriam. Participation in Virtual Forums in Massive Courses (UNED). REDIE [online]. 2016, vol.18, n.3, pp.121-134. ISSN 1607-4041.

Forums are the best-established means of communication for online learning activities, as they respond to the needs, interests, demands and characteristics of each group, but the size of the group must be taken into consideration as this determines the strategies, content and dynamics used. This research analyzes the suitability of teaching strategies used over the course of five academic years in the forums of a first-year course with massive enrollment. A descriptive-explicative methodology is used to assess student participation from access rates, the length of time students stay on the forums, the number of student contributions and their content (relevance, clarity, etc.). The results confirm that forums are a means of interaction and reveal that in first-year courses with massive enrollment, the most adequate strategies are those that address social and emotional needs and include participation as a voluntary activity in course assessment.

Keywords : Student participation; virtual classrooms; discussion groups; asynchronous communication.