Extending face-to-face tutorials by creating tutorial discussion boards

Agi O’Hara,
Faculty of Arts

Psychology for Social Work introduces students to foundational theories and models in psychology, as well as practice strategies for dealing with many of the complex issues they will face in their future careers. Students are expected to develop reflexive self-awareness by monitoring their personal reactions to the themes and issues raised in the unit, and to consider them in relation to the realities of Social Work.

Students have explored these ideas primarily through traditional face-to-face tutorials. Consistent feedback over the years suggests that students are interested in extending tutorial contact. Like many units, this has not been a real possibility due to resource constraints. I decided to create a WebCT site for the unit and to incorporate, amongst several other features, tutorial discussion groups as a way of extending tutorial contact. Discussion groups offer a user-friendly way for students to continue exploring the issues raised in their face-to-face tutorials. Questions are set each week to initiate and stimulate discussion postings, although postings are not limited to these. Students are expected to post at least two responses to their Discussion Group each week. The quality of postings determines tutorial participation marks for the unit.

Postings in the first 3 weeks of semester served as an orientation to the online discussion groups and responses from students (110 enrolled) were very encouraging. Before tutorials had even begun, over 50 postings were made to the general discussion area. The comments were very positive

Hey there everyone - I like this idea of the discussion board! I think we can get a lot from it - using this medium and learning from each other too…

I wasn't born with a computer implant like you young ones, so accessing this website is a real triumph for me!!

I just wanted to thank you for this idea, as I am very hesitant about talking in tutorials and sometimes I feel guilty that I’m not really offering anything to the group hopefully this should fix the problem…

Many students disclosed quite personal anecdotes and opinions as they grappled with difficult subject matter. They remained connected with the issues raised in tutorials for the week following the tutorial. Informal evaluations indicate that students are learning much more from sharing ideas via the online discussion boards than would have been possible in a one hour tutorial. While there seems to have been real learning benefits from reorganising the unit, I am mindful of the workload implications of going online. Anne Forster’s comment that online learning “is an add-on rather than a replacement of existing workload” reminds me that it takes approximately four hours each week to assess the tutorial postings. My next challenge will be to determine how I can better integrate student learning outcomes in the unit the feasible management of online tutorial discussion groups.

Agi teaches and researches in the Department of Social Work, Social Policy & Sociology. Her responsibilities in Psychology for Social Work are lecturing, tutoring and coordination. Other teaching interests are ethical professional practice and groupwork. She has been the chair/ member of the Department’s Teaching & Learning Committee for several years and on the Faculty of Arts Teaching & Learning Committee (1999-2001).
Email: agi.ohara@social.usyd.edu.au

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