ASYNCHRONOUS LECTURER-SUPPORTED DISCUSSION FORUM IN TEACHING QUANTITATIVE METHODS TO BUSINESS STUDENTS

Abstract

While asynchronous discussion forums have been widely implemented across different learning environments, there have been mixed findings in terms of their impact on student performance. This study aims to investigate the impact of an asynchronous lecturer-supported discussion forum used to augment traditional Face-to-Face course delivery, on student performance in a Quantitative Methods course taught to business students in the Caribbean. An asynchronous support discussion forum was set up for a group project designed for students to apply quantitative techniques to solve real-world problems. The quantity and quality of student participation and lecturer participation in the discussion forum, represented by student questions and lecturer questions, were investigated to determine their impact on student performance, measured by group project marks for 109 student groups over three academic years. The results showed that neither student participation nor lecturer participation in the asynchronous support discussion forum led to significantly better student performance by way of group project mark. Possible reasons for this finding that is inconsistent with the literature include issues such as voluntary student participation in the forum, multiple other avenues to obtain lecturer support, and the use of questions to represent participation. The study’s conceptual framework points to the importance of specifying the learning environment, learning objective, discussion forum type and engagement type in examining the impact of a discussion forum.