Students' perspective on the impact of a web-based discussion forum on student learning

It is often a said that students learn best from their peers, thus it is beneficial to promote student-to-student interactions inside and outside of the classroom. A Web-based discussion forum is one way of facilitating these interactions. At Rochester Institute of Technology, every oncampus course has a website, which includes e-mail and discussion forum sections, and areas where the course syllabus, homework, and grades can be posted. The level of usage of these course websites varies across RIT, with many instructors using the websites solely for posting course syllabus and grades, and few using the discussion forum. The authors conducted a survey of students in the structural analysis and structural loads courses to determine the impact of online discussion forums on student learning in engineering technology on-campus courses. The survey results and correlation of students' participation rates with course grades indicate a positive impact on student learning in these oncampus courses.