Promoting Student Engagement through Bulletin Board Style Virtual Learning Communities1

This study investigated the possibility of increasing student engagement by creating, implementing and maintaining a virtual learning community (VLC) as an added resource for students. Increasing student engagement requires reaching students with a variety of active and collaborative learning methods (Ullah & Wilson, 2007). In the 21st century, almost all students are engaged in online activities; being connected has become essential (Oblinger & Oblinger, 2006). A two-phase, mixed methods approach was used. Two focus groups of undergraduates (N = 10, N = 11) were conducted to gather informatio