Studying Online;Succeeding through Distance Learning at University

Using study forums 103 
issue with public forums is that the discussion may not be at the 
critical thinking level required for academic study. Tis will be of 
particular concern to Master’s students. 
However, public discussion forums can be of beneft to students. 
Often they present current thinking and ideas about a topic. Tis 
is diferent from textbooks which by their very nature are bound 
to be a year or so out-of-date, at best. Also, public discussion fo-
rums will often have experts in a particular feld who could pro-
vide you with helpful information when doing your research for 
assignments, for example. Indeed, if you are struggling with your 
learning, then asking questions on public sites such as Quora or 
Reddit can provide you with some expert information at times 
and could be worth exploring because of this. In fact, if you ask a 
question on something like Quora, you may well fnd that lectur-
ers from other universities are the individuals providing you with 
answers. 

HOW STUDENTS USE FORUMS 
Students are like anyone else – they vary in their behaviour pat-
terns and individual preferences for online activities. Tat means 
there is a wide variety of usage patterns when it comes to online 
forums. However, my anecdotal experience of working with stu-
dents on forums over the past 20 years suggests there are three 
types of behaviour. 
1. Avid use of the forum, making regular contributions 
2. Lurking, only viewing and making no contributions 
3. Ignoring the forum until forced to do so. 
If I look back at the forums I have used over the last few years, I can 
see that the majority of the contributions come from a handful of 
students in each study group. However, I can also see several other 
students who log in regularly, read the materials on the forum, 
but never add anything themselves – not even a comment saying 
thank you. One thing I have also noticed is that the students who 

---