Studying Online;Succeeding through Distance Learning at University

Using study forums 93 
QUICK TIP: Find out about all the forums and discussion groups 
for your courses and sign up to take part. Ignoring these forums 
could lower your chances of success. 

ACADEMIC DISCUSSION GROUPS 
USED BY ONLINE STUDENTS 
Tere are several diferent kinds of discussion groups used in on-
line study. Tey are not always called “discussion groups”, so it is 
worthwhile fnding out the variety of names that may be used. 
Tese can include: 
y
Chat 
y
Chat room 
y
Discussion group 
y
Forum 
y
Newsgroup 
y
Room 
y
Team 
y
Wiki. 
Tere may also be names for discussion groups peculiar to your 
university or specifc to the software you are asked to use. You 
won’t always be using something called “discussion” or “forum” to 
have group chats. Tere will also be diferent forums for diferent 
purposes. For instance, in one of the modules that I teach, there 
are the following discussion forums: 
y
Welcome forum – a discussion group that is there only for the 
frst couple of weeks, enabling students to get to know one anoth-
er. It is informal and has nothing academic contained within it. 
y
Module forum – this forum is where academic discussions oc-
cur and where students can ask questions about anything to do 
with the module. 

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94 Studying online 
y
Study group forum – this is for the students to chat about 
anything they like related to the module. Tere is no academic 
input from me, though I may answer questions. 
y
Tutorial forum – a discussion group for each of the weekly 
tutorial sessions. 
Tese forums replicate what tends to happen in the informal 
group discussions that students would have on a traditional cam-
pus. Tey would have informal groupings, and they would also 
meet up to discuss tutorial work, for instance. However, there may 
be other forums that do not replace typical student discussions. 
For example, I have forums that are there specifcally for students 
to contribute to a discussion which is then assessed according to 
the level of involvement made by each individual student. Other 
forums also exist for online students, which does not happen with 
traditional face-to-face teaching.