Studying Online;Succeeding through Distance Learning at University

104 Studying online 
are avid users and who play a full part in the forum discussions are 
the ones who tend to get the highest marks. 
QUICK TIP: If you want high marks, play an active role in the
forums. 
 
Many students prefer to be “lurkers”, just visiting the forum, read-
ing what is there, and never taking an active part. One of the pos-
sible reasons for this is that the forums can seem isolated from 
classes. According to one study of the use of online forums by 
students, students appreciate it when the online discussions are 
extended into lecture classes (Hirschel, 2012). If you are taking 
hybrid classes with some online and some face-to-face sessions, 
the lecturer may integrate the forum discussions with information 
in class. However, with recorded online lectures, that is not always 
possible. Hence, one idea that you could use is to ask questions 
based on what was on the forum in any live online lectures or one-
to-one sessions with lecturers. Tat way, you will beneft from ex-
tending the forum discussion, which appears to help integrate the 
ideas. Even if you are a lurker, you can do this. 

AVOIDING FEELING STUPID 
One of the reasons why students do not take part in forums is 
they do not wish to appear stupid. Tey don’t want to ask ques-
tions or make comments that make them seem like they do not 
understand. When I encourage students to participate in forums, 
I am often asked, “What if I say something that others will think 
is stupid? I don’t want to appear as though I don’t understand”. 
I try to explain that even the world’s top experts in a subject did not 
understand it, to begin with. Indeed, they only got to be those ex-
perts because they asked questions without worrying about what 
other people thought. Of course, that is easy for me to say, but it 
does not eliminate the feeling of inadequacy that many students 

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