I was looking for something yesterday– and as it turns out it was right under my nose (would that The Essential Thomas Paine be found there, too)– and not only did I find something for which I wasn’t looking (looking for, whatever), I found this as well.

Context: A couple of years ago I took the online class mentioned and posted this in answer to an assignment. “Aspwriter”– if you’re not familiar with the genre of Aspiring Writers who take these online classes– is a poke at all of us.

Benefits of Discussion Participation

by M.D. Englisher, Senior Editor, Online Education

Yesterday, Marica Aspwriter threw up her arms in frustration. In a telephone interview, Aspwriter stated that the lack of feedback from instructors and fellow students in the discussion sections of the online course, “Media Writing and Editing,” offered by Ohio State University and hosted by Canvas Network, is discouraging. “I understand that it’s a free course and you get what you pay for,” Aspwriter said. “But couldn’t a lowly graduate student pop into the discussion every once in a while?” 

Aspwriter also questioned why there was so little feedback from fellow students. “I’m three modules in and hardly any of the other students even ‘like’ a response, much less actually respond,” she said. Aspwriter also noted that not all online courses lack participation in discussion.

Caroline Painter, a veteran of online courses, agrees. “To me, discussion among fellow students is one of the primary reasons I succeed in online classes,” Painter said when interviewed in her studio. When asked about those successes, she pointed to dozens of framed certificates of completion hanging on the walls. “I find it very rewarding to engage with students from all over the world,” she said. “I learn almost as much from them as I do from the course content,” she added.

Studies have shown that online students who participate regularly in discussion have a more positive experience than those who seldom or never participate. One such study was authored by Dr. Jordan Thinker of the Department of Philosophy at State University and appeared in the academic journal, Thinking Today. Dr. Thinker analyzed data collected from over 1000 students enrolled in 75 online courses. “For many students, learning is a social endeavor,” Thinker emailed. “When you take students out of the classroom and isolate them in front of a computer screen you largely remove the social context. Discussion is one means of restoring sociality,” he said. 

Positive experience is not the sole benefit of discussion. Discussion participators also  have better grades than their non-participant peers. Another study by Thinker and colleagues published in the journal, Education Contemplation, showed that students who participate in discussion have an 89 percent better chance of receiving a passing grade than those who do not. Thinker cautioned, however, not to confuse an individual student’s chance of success with group data. 

Kat Design, in a Skype interview from her luxury condominium in Florida, emphasized that discussion feedback from fellow photographers and graphic artists contributed to the popularity of her ebook, How to GIMP. “Without the lively discussions from other students in the online classes I took, my book would never have sold ten copies, let alone a million,” she said. “I attribute a great deal of my success to the feedback– positive and negative– from others on the boards.”

In a followup interview late this afternoon, Aspwriter confirmed that she would be completing the assignment that prompted her frustration, despite the lack of feedback. “Might as well have some fun with it,” she laughed.