STLHE: Making connections: learning communities, online discussion forums, and student success

Presenter: Corey Goldman, University of Toronto [paper abstract]

Is anyone doing research into online learning communities and online social networks? There’s so much potential there! This occured to me as I listened to Corey talk about BIOME, the online portal for Life Sciences students that he set up at the University of Toronto. The project sounds amazing, and very sucessful from the evidence he provided. The other project Corey covered was the meatspace learning communities they set up for first-year Life Sciences students. More details below.

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Intro
- Corey teaches labs in a large 1st year Biology course at the University of Toronto
- both projects described in this session are intended to enhance student success
- enhancing the student experience is the #1 priority at U of T right now.

The student experience
- enjoyment of the courses
- satisfaction with grades
- connection to campus community (this is what students will remember)
- everything else – advising, classroom quality, IT resources, library resources, etc.

Where did the idea come from that they need to build community?
- survey that said that 60% of students didn’t feel “connected”
- 55-70% said they were receiving lower grades than expected
- 40% said they found transition to university challenging

Online learning community called BIOME
- web portal
- online discussion forum
- for life science students

BIOME web portal
- links to news and events
- profiles of faculty that change weekly
- chat rooms
- information about courses and course websites
- info on special lectures on campus
- student life: counseling, etc.
- tools: campus map, my biology library site, information lit tutorial called the “information foraging tutorial”
- right now 2700 students visit the site everyday
- 5120 have registered to use the chat rooms
- usage peaks on monday mornings and during exam period

Discussion forums
- threaded discussion forum powered by vBulletin
- the forum is not the course website, most courses also have their own website (on BlackBoard)
- private messaging within the forum also
- indicators to say who is logged in

Elements of a successful online community
- the cohort is important. probably wouldn’t work for ALL students, you need smaller cohorts
- student 2 student: faculty is there, but it’s mostly a student space
- social presence – e.g.: general chat. they want an area to be social on this space as well
- rules need to be established right off the top. clear rules as to what is acceptable and not acceptable academic behaviour (e.g.: no sharing assignment answers)
- comfort zones – this is where faculty can get uncomfortable (hard to accept what they’re saying and how they say it!)
- lurkers learn – literature shows that 1/3 of students read & post messages; 1/3 read only; 1/3 rarely read or post
- allow for identity & fun – avatars, emoticons, signatures. the more they can personalize their space, the more involved they will be
- restricted registration (@utoronto.ca email addresses only)
- administrator, moderator, users. moderators are students (they have a selection process). messages go automatically to the board (nothing is filtered) but the moderators keep watch and move content to appropriate categories/threads when needed
- student input – crucial! if you don’t respond to what the students want, they will stop coming
- avatars are important because it’s their online identity
- BIOME now has meatspace meetings and events! relationships are built online and grow offline

How do you measure success?
- difficult!
- they do online surveys (respondents self-select, which is problematic too)
- anecdotal evidence: 5000 users, 22,000 threads on the forum, 360,000 messages posted a year, 220 forums (for 120 courses)

Year-end evaluation: 20% of community responded
- 62% visit once a week
- 30% visit once a day
- 38% post and read messages
- 50% only read (lurkers)
- 68% visit the academic forums
- 85% of respondents agreed that BIOME was a useful resource

- is there any way of assessing the quality of the academic discussion? there is no formal mechanism but anecdotal evidence suggests that quality starts low and and then increases as the term goes on. even in instructor-moderated forums, it’s a good idea for instructors to wait 24 hours before responding to questions, wait for the students to answer questions amongst themselves. it’s self-correcting too, wrong information is often corrected.

First-Year Learning Communities – FLCs (“flicks”)
- help new students fit in at the University (which is large!)
- meet classmates, develop friendships, form study groups, develop academic and personal skills
- 2005-6 pilot year. Life Science students taking large classes not living in residence
- they were block registered in all their classes and their FLCs were added to their schedules
- college-based – all students in the FLC were in the same college
- 24 students per FLC
- non-credit. Appears on their transcript as a non-academic activity if they complete it
- facilitated by a student peer mentor, under guidance of staff and faculty mentor (student peer mentors are upper year life science students)
- peer mentor runs the program but there’s also a faculty member present

Topics:
- gettng a job
- choosing a program
- stress management
- exam prep
- research opportunities
- study groups
- time management
- the sessions can have guest speakers, etc. one rule: no powerpoint presentations! they’re supposed to be interactive sessions
- social activities have to be included
- every group gets a $250 stipend as seed money for social events, food for meetings, etc.
- year-end banquet, 160 students came!

Detailed assessment:
- everybody was assessed
- participation rate was 85%
- very good results, mostly all positive
- self-selected, so only students who wanted to do it did it (motivated students)
- cost was $400 per student during the pilot

Future:
- FLCs expanding next year
- adding computer science and commerce

Essential elements for learning communities to work:
- champions in discipline areas
- define cohorts, core courses, schedules
- cohort-specific programming
- staff & faculty advisors
- peer mentor training and support
- meeting space is critical. don’t meet in a classroom, it needs a multi-purpose room that has comfortable seating, etc. More of a social space.