Case study of online discussion board use in an engineering education graduate course

Due to the increasing prevalence of asynchronous learning platforms, the development and implementation of online discussion boards have become important considerations in the design of post-secondary learning environments. This research is conducted as a case study of the online discussion board use in a small engineering education graduate course, consisting of in-class and online discussion components. By varying the structure of the online discussion board to allow different types of student interaction, the study identifies trends in discussion board use, specifically pertaining to student participation, student collaboration, and the integration between in-class and online discussions. As a result, the study provides insight into the utility and limitations of online discussion boards in post-secondary courses