Clustered Discussion Board as an Online Tool To Enhance Student Learning and Participation

Discussion board is a common online tool used in blended and online courses. Peer-to-peer written interactions through online platforms like discussion board are known to enhance learner understanding and contribute positively to the learning environment. Although research has shown that discussion boards can greatly enhance chemistry education, it is not widely used in chemistry curricula. The traditional online discussion board starts with one initial post based on the discussion topic, and the subsequent posts contribute additional content that extends the discussion horizontally. Science courses are fact based and hence not amenable to long horizontal discussions. Furthermore, information gets lost in the hundreds of posts and threads. Here I have presented a new framework for online discussion board based on “clustered discussions” as an alternative to the traditional “horizontal discussions”. The clustered discussion board framework segregates the discussion posts based on pre-defined criteria making it more effective in encouraging student participation and student learning while being less taxing on the instructor.