ALNs are normally thought of as a means to deliver at a distance the learning experiences that already occur in the traditional face-to-face classroom. This view ignores the enhancements that these networks can bring to the learning experience itself, regardless of its mode of delivery. In Fall 98 and Winter 99 terms, Asynchronous Forums were used in both online and campus sections of my Business Law 1 classes. I found that Asynchronous Forums are a learning tool that can be used to enhance the quality of the learning experience, (particularly the quality of higher order thinking skills), regardless of the chosen mode of delivery for the class, (online or face-to-face).

Table of Contents

What We Did

Requirements of Business Law 1

Business Law 1, a 3 credit course taught at many community colleges and 4-year institutions, requires students to be able to apply the principles and rules of law that they learn to case situations that they are likely to encounter on the job. To do so requires substantial interaction with both the instructor and other students in order to obtain and evaluate various perspectives and viewpoints that are essential to appreciating the Areasonable person@ concept.

Building this appreciation is a two part process. First, students are required to learn the common meaning of certain legal rules and principles which can be very complex and detailed. During this phase, students start with a general explanation of the law which is either provided in their textbook or through instructor lectures. They then must explore the meaning of these rules through class discussions in which various viewpoints are explored and evaluated. This diversity of perspective is precisely what keeps the law dynamic. By sharing viewpoints, students begin to appreciate the true nature of the law as a balancing of diverse viewpoints in an effort to resolve conflict. After students develop their understanding of the rules, they must apply these rules to case situations in order to test their understanding and have their knowledge transfer to practical application on the job. During this phase, students must test and critique their analysis. It is far more effective to have students do this in a collaborative process where they receive the benefit of not only their instructor=s perspective, but that of their classmates as well. Again, an interactive sharing is indicated. This fits most closely with a constructivist model of learning, (more accurately a generativist model of learning). In Bloom=s popular taxonomy, we would regard this process as involving the analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. In any event, the Business Law 1 course involves a substantial amount of higher order thinking. Whether delivered in a distance learning format or a face-to-face format, the higher order thinking would have to be accommodated.

Modes of Delivery

There are basically two modes of delivery for instruction at our college, face-to-face and distance learning. The face-to-face classes meets for 45 hours of instruction over a 15 week period, (face-to-face). Students are expected to complete a substantial amount of work, (homework) outside of class. There are also classes where students do not meet, (distance learning). Students are expected, in addition to completing the assigned homework to view tapes or do some other assigned activity in place of the face-to-face class sessions. In practice, I have found that not much consideration is given to the objectives of the course in planning distance deliveries and that modes of delivery are allowed to influence how content will be presented and taught. In the case of our Business Law 1 course, it was understood that course objectives would have to be met regardless of the mode of delivery. Thus, the face-to-face and on-line, (distance), sections would use essentially the same syllabus. The difference between the sections would lie in the way in which students shared diverse viewpoints in order to strengthen their knowledge of the legal rules and principles presented and in being able to apply their knowledge to case situations they would be likely to encounter on the job. Students attending the face-to-face sections of the course would share in class discussions during scheduled class times. Students attending the online section of the class would share in asynchronous forums. The remaining assignments were the same.

The Choice of Asynchronous Forums

There were several reasons for the choice of asynchronous forums over other forms of interactivity such as Achats@. First, was the fact that most student taking the online course were severely restricted as to available time. Their work and family commitments made it difficult for them to attend class. However, they could steal a few minutes after dinner, in the early morning hours, or late at night to study. Scheduling a synchronous chat would be difficult for them. Second, the synchronous chat required skills on the part of the instructor, (me), that she simply did not have. (I had enough knowledge of chat rooms to know that there is considerable talent involved in directing conversations and I just didn=t have the time to learn how to do it.)

Needed Features in the Asynchronous Forums

Because students would be using the asynchronous forums as a substitute for the face-to-face discussions in which they explored the diversity of viewpoints concerning a particular matter of law, we identified the following features as necessary in the asynchronous forums.

1. Being able to organize and perceive the Aflow@ of conversations.

Students needed to be able to see the Aflow@ of the conversations in terms of a comment and response to that comment. In the face-to-face classroom, the order of comments is controlled by the instructor. Students are expected to make comments only to subjects that are Aon the table@ at the time and not to Achange subjects@. This simply isn=t true of the asynchronous forums. Students can sign in at any time and be at any point in their learning. A mechanism for organizing the flow of comments would be necessary.

AThreaded@ and Aindexed@ boards met this need but had severe limitations concerning their ability to support synthesis and integration of materials, (an essential instructional need of the Business Law course). Students have to either cut and paste each comment into a word document for latter printing or print each comment individually and use the many pages as a Abooklet@ of comments. Either way, the time requirements are enormous and this has a Achilling@ effect on student participation.

2. Being able to view all responses to a topic at once and print out a record of these responses

The Business Law course requires students to analyze and evaluate the comments of others. They use these comments to strengthen their own understanding of the materials covered and integrate the legal rules and principles into their own experience and prior knowledge. To do this, students must have readily available to them all the comments about a particular point or principle that they are trying to understand. They need to review these comments all at once and synthesize them into a cohesive whole that makes integration possible.

The Awell@ style, or Aguestbook@ type of forum listing meets this need. It permits students to view all comments made by others and print them out. Unfortunately, unless topics are organized and the flow of conversation directed to these topics, these boards came easily become a collection of random thoughts. One solution is to have different boards for different topics. The boards can be linked on a separate web page that acts as a table of contents.

3. Ability to Asearch@ messages

This feature is desirable for both students and instructors. A particularly nice feature is the ability to search the forum comments by keyword as well as author. The keyword search allows students to compile listings of those postings that concern a particular topic or subject they are having trouble with. The author search capability can give the instructor a general idea of who is contributing although it is necessary to examine the message content to determine the quality of comments being made.

4. Ability to be notified by e-mail of messages.

The e-mail features are nice but not essential to the use of the boards. They allow the student to Asubscribe@ to the list and be notified by e-mail when there is a new posting. I prefer to have students check the boards frequently and not rely on getting postings by mail. However, the feature IS nice for the instructor to have.

5. Easy to learn

Although we want the forum boards to be easy to use, that ease of use should not be gained at the sacrifice of needed or desirable features. There are many boards that are Aintuitive@ in their use. There are no Aconfusing@ features for the user to learn that permit tailoring the display to meet his or her needs. A good rule of thumb that I use is whether or not students, with about 15 minutes of instruction, (whether during an orientation or through an exercise), can be using the board effectively.

6. Consistency

The solution

At our college, web sites are easy enough for many faculty to set up and administrators are pretty much willing to support them. However, interactivity, through use of Perl scripts is a highly restricted activity and generally not available for faculty use in the classroom.

Course Structure during Fall 98 and Winter 99 terms

Fall 98

Class Participation Requirements

What We Expected to Find

In running parallel face-to-face and on-line sections of our Business Law course, we hoped to understand the impact of using asynchronous forums on the learning experience. Specifically, we wanted to know what effect, if any, the following features of asynchronous boards would have on the quality of higher order thinking skills of a generative type.

1. Features that aided in analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Features that helped students organize materials and integrate that knowledge into their own prior experience and knowledge.
1. More thought would be given to answers due to the fact that statements are posted.
2. A permanent record of comments and questions would be available for selective review by students enhancing their ability to analyze and synthesize information
3. Feedback could be solicited on a just-in-time basis
4. Answers to questions would be shared with a greater audience at times more appropriate to the individual’s learning readiness.
5. Greater exposure to alternative viewpoints would be gained by having student comments, (probably well thought out), posted to view and review and respond to by other students.

2. Community among students would be enhanced because there would be a meeting place, outside of official class time, to discuss assignments and other aspects of the course or college life.
3. Team work and collaboration would be facilitated
1. Individual contributions are easily documented making the nature of each member’s contribution clear to both team members and the instructor.
2. Individual contributions are easily shared and reviewed at relatively convenient times by team members and the instructor.
3. Feedback can be solicited on a just-in-time basis from other team members and the instructor.

4. Class contribution can be permanently tracked through forum records enhancing the ability of the instructor to assess class contribution.

What We Found

1. Accountability for homework improved.

Accountability for homework and participation improved. Online comments were part of a permanent record and available to all to see. Campus attendance and comments were also recorded. Students no longer had as many excuses to come to class unprepared. Any handouts they were missing were available on the web. If a student did not understand an assignment, he or she could ask about it in the forums.

Unfortunately, improvements to completion rates were not noticeable.

2. Quality of student comments improved for a very few students and these comments were widely distributed

   Unfortunately, it became quickly apparent which students were making the effort to learn the material and which students simply did not have the time to contribute. In fact, the quality of comments in Fall 98 was almost intimidating and I had to post several announcements to remind students that this quality was exceptional and although it was appreciated, it was not expected. About 5 students became active in the class. The rest of the students went through the formalities.

3. Community formed between the students, but only a few students using the forums

   Those students using the forums on a regular basis became close, even choosing to meet outside of class. However, no sense of community developed among the other class members. Some students continually directed their questions to me, despite the fact that they were appropriate forum questions. When I would ask them to post their question with my answer to the forum, they readily agreed. One of these students then became an active participant. Unfortunately, many students seemed insistent on being able to use their instructor as a private tutor.

4. Common misperceptions could be addressed, recorded permanently, and made available on a just-in-time basis without the instructor having to repeat her comments.

   Many students start their study of law with important misperceptions of what law really is. These misperceptions are usually corrected through class discussions during the first few weeks of class. Of course, students who miss the first few classes start in on their studies with these misperceptions in place, causing the class to revisit these issues or leave these students behind.

   The online forums, by providing a permanent place to record our class dialogue about these perceptions, makes it possible for students to seek out this discussion, (and others like it), when they are ready. This had important ramifications for the campus sections. Students, who had missed many classes, could be referred to the discussions on the web as a place to catch up. The class could continue on with discussions of topics that were scheduled. In the online sections, it was also possible to refer students to previous forum posting when their questions reflect the fact that they have the read materials and/or completed assignments late. This was particularly useful in responding to e-mails.

5. Collaborative efforts easier to monitor and assess.

   Student collaborative activities could be reviewed and corrective intervention made when indicated. The forums let everyone review individual team work contributions and make helpful comments before the team started to consolidate their thoughts. Interestingly, many students started to visit other teams to see what they were doing and get ideas. This was particularly true of the campus sections of the classes.

   Unfortunately, some students found the online tools to be cumbersome and one group asked if they could meet in person and post a summary of their results. (They did this.)

6. Take-home exam scores improved but quickly segregated those unwilling to take time to learn.

   Students LOVED the instantaneous feedback on the take-home exams and this reduced my grading time substantially. I believe that because students were encouraged to discuss exam questions in the forums, exam scores tended to improve on the whole. There continued to be a few who did not do well and they dropped. Unfortunately, by mid-term, the quality of questions about the exams deteriorated. What questions appeared, did so hours before the due date of the exam. Furthermore, the questions seemed more directed towards ascertaining the answer as opposed to understanding it. I believe that the forum postings had become a meaningless exercise for those students who were active participants in the course. They understood the concepts and now wanted to turn their learning efforts to the case analysis projects and other more complex assignments.

7. Quality of case analysis and class discussion improved substantially for those actively participating in class and the forums.

   Students who actively participated in class discussions prepared and who took part in the forums were able to perform high quality case analysis as reflected in their papers. Typically, these students took advantage of the forums as a means to receive feedback on their drafts and thoughts before due date. They also reviewed the comments of other students and incorporated it into their own work. Although much of the review was passive, some students asked questions of other students and were able to get effective feedback. Unfortunately, those who did not actively participate continued to write papers that lacked such quality and even had difficulty distinguishing good analyses from poor ones. By the end of the term, their inability to perform legal analysis affected their overall ability to learn and was reflected in other grades, (exams), as well.

8. Classes tended to become divided.

Unfortunately, the ability to identify students as being prepared, both in the online and campus sections, coupled with the ability to refer unprepared students to the online forums, tended to divide the class. Good students, who came to class prepared, felt rewarded for their efforts. However, unprepared students, who were used to being accommodated in their lack of preparation, did not like it. Class discussion became very difficult for those who had not prepared their homework or kept up with their readings. On the other hand, the quality of discussion improved.

Campus section students, particularly those students who were doing a good job, actively sought out their counterparts in the online section. These students simply did not find enough peers among the students in their assigned sections and welcomed the opportunity to engage in truly quality academic discussion.

Implications for the Future

Important Implications for ALNs

Although our results are inconclusive, they suggest to me some important implications.

1. ALN’s offer an opportunity for students to interact with the instructor and other students that can help them organize materials that are presented and to test their understanding.

2. ALN’s offer an opportunity for students to test their deeper understanding of the material as it is integrated into their prior experience and knowledge.

3. ALN’s offer opportunities to practice and test responses in preparation for an exam or other graded assignment.

4. ALN’s offer opportunities to structure and monitor collaborative and team work, permitting greater accountability of individual team member efforts.

5. ALN’s can be used to build community but this will tend to happen with those students who are participating in the class.

6. The opportunities offered by the ALN apply both to classes offered in a distance learning format as well as the face-to-face traditional class.

Implications for Three Types of Classes

I close with a few comments about what I feel to be the most important implications for three types of classes

1. the lecture class
2. the self-paced mentoring class
3. the reflective discussion class

Lecture Class

The lecture class is characterized by the dissemination of knowledge through a lecture, (perhaps preceded by assigned readings. Students are then tested as to how well they have acquired that knowledge, as organized by the disseminator. In many cases, the "lecture" class may be combined with class discussions and other activities that help to student reflect on the knowledge being studied and integrate it into their own experience and knowledge. However, its traditional focus is on testing a student’s understanding of the material as presented in the lecture.

In this type of class, forums can offer a student a place to "test" their knowledge of the material in preparation for an exam. Difficult concepts would require a "well" type of forum that could display the content of all messages and would enable students to analyze and synthesize the materials presented. However, this type of communication would assume that students have the sophistication and ability to understand the material presented to a degree sufficient to facilitate this type of discussion. This may not be the case.

Forums could also be used as a place for asking specific questions about the materials. In most cases, as in the face-to-face class, these questions will be directed at the instructor. The online forums add the opportunity for a greater number of students to review the answers when they are ready. For these types of questions, a threaded format would be most appropriate.

As is the case with the campus lecture class, little community is likely to develop.

Self-Paced Mentoring Class

The self-paced mentoring class is characterized by the dissemination of knowledge through assigned readings and homework assignments, (typically problems), that are graded and then tested.

Here, forums can be used effectively as a place for asking specific questions about the materials and assigned homework. A threaded board would be the appropriate choice. Because answers to questions are permanent, instructors may be able to avoid having to repeat answers and questions by having students check the forums for similar questions already asked and answered. There would be not much chance for community development since these courses are meant to be self-paced.

The Reflective Discussion Class

This class not only involves the dissemination of information, it focuses on helping the student organize and integrate that information into his or her prior knowledge and experience. Thus, reflective class discussion is essential. Online forums are suited to this class but care in their organization and structure as well as the way in which they are monitored are important.

Online forums can be used to help students organize the materials that are presented in the text, slides, or other readings or means of dissemination. In this case, the "well" type format is needed to permit students to synthesize responses in order to evaluate them.

These forums can also be used as places for students to test their integration of the new knowledge into their prior experience and knowledge. For example, students could discuss hypothetical case situations that cause them to apply what they have learned. Again, the "well" type of format would be indicated.

Online forums can also be used as places for student questions and answers on a "just-in-time" basis. These questions can not only cover the course content but be directed at procedures and policies as well. In these cases, a threaded board is probably indicated.

Finally, the forums offer great opportunities for collaborative work. The board offers a convenient way of sharing individual work and a permanent record of team decisions that can be reviewed by both students and instructors. In the case of collaborative work, a well type board is indicated where students can easily review a history of their work.

Conclusion: Online Forums Suited to Learning Regardless of the Delivery Mode

As shown above, none of the uses made of the online board were better suited to one delivery method over another. The determining factor was the instructional need for the board that may vary depending on the type of class that is being taught. Important features include the creation of permanent records and the ability to access the forums when it is convenient in a just-in-time learning mode. These features exist as important tools in the educational process, regardless of the delivery system used.