March/April 2001 Table of Contents
In this Article
What factors were responsible for this decrease?
Benefits of Online Discussions
By Caroline Storr and Aliki Thomas
The changes in the Canadian health care landscape in recent years have
expanded the role diversity of occupational therapists. Consequently,
occupational therapy student learning experiences have mirrored these
changes. Student occupational therapists at McGill University generally
undertake placements within the greater Montreal area. The practice areas
include physical medicine, geriatrics, mental health and pediatrics. Within
these fields, they may be placed in acute care settings, short-term rehabilitation
centers, longer-term care facilities, community centers, schools or home-based
services. These programs may involve direct occupational therapy services,
indirect/consultation services and/or program/case management. To further
compound the myriad learning environments, our students may also be geographically
dispersed in settings across Canada with different health care delivery
systems, in the United States or in selected countries around the world.
As clinical coordinators at McGill University, a pedagogical challenge
has emerged to share these different experiences amongst our students,
in an attempt to enrich their practice knowledge. Web-based teaching tools
are the ideal medium for us to link our students in different cities and
time zones, and promote the exchange of experiences and knowledge.
The web-based bulletin board
We decided to pilot the bulletin board feature of the WebCT teaching platform.
This is a very user-friendly Internet-based program developed by the University
of British Columbia and used by the majority of universities in North
America (Press release, 2000).
We selected the bulletin board to add an intensified, interactive element to the situated learning of clinical affiliation and permit peer collaboration. We chose to pilot the bulletin board feature with our second year students during their summer placement period. The WebCT bulletin board feature and its application to higher education was presented to the class during scheduled pre-clinical affiliation seminars. Following the presentation, a one-hour workshop was conducted to allow students to register and to practise posting questions and comments on-line.
Pilot project results
Our initial pilot results indicate that 41 of 46 students (90%) attempted
to access our bulletin board. A post project survey cited the reasons
for lack of participation as no interest, prefer other means of communication
and no Internet access. Interestingly, this rate of 10% non-participation
is what preliminary studies measuring attrition rates from Internet-based
courses also report (Pychyl, 2000).
Over this summer placement period when students must successfully complete two of three possible sessions, 83% of all our students actually read messages that were posted onto our bulletin board and 65% of our students posted messages for their fellow students to read. We were pleased with this high level of participation.
When we looked a little closer at our preliminary results, we found that our student participation trailed off over our placement periods. Student participation can involve just reading messages and/or posting messages. The authors will gladly provide interested readers with more detailed statistics. It is important to realize that more than half of our students in the last placement session were situated in Sweden, Switzerland, France and the U.S.A. where Internet access was restricted.
Despite this drop in students using the bulletin board over the three possible placement sessions, there was clearly interest in using this type of learning tool. When looking at our data, we found that one third of our students read the board in all three sessions, implying that they were reading the bulletin board even when they themselves were not in a placement.
What factors were responsible
for this decrease?
Based on our post survey, it appears that reduction in readings and postings
was caused by a combination of conditions. Clearly, the initial anxiety
had dissipated by the second summer placement as students had a much better
idea of what was expected of them during these placements. It appeared
that the bulletin board filled an important need to permit students to
share their common concerns. A second explanation for this trailing off
may be that most students were in placement during the first session (96%)
and then split between the next two sessions. Comments from students who
did not receive answers or responses from their peers indicated that they
became disenchanted with the process. Only two students reported that
they did not like the bulletin board.
Emerging themes
When we examined the types of themes that were being posted on the bulletin
board, we found a rich array of topics. Our students participated in the
following discussions: sharing various evaluations such as the Assessment
of Motor Process Skills (AMPS) and driving assessments, sharing and problem-solving
different treatment approaches, dealing with varying levels of client
motivation, coping with dying clients, focusing on peer support, referring
to the diversity of different stages such as international placements,
discussing different languages and non-traditional community placements,
comparing the reality between theory and practice, contrasting the diversity
of occupational therapy roles in different practice domains and clarifying
the student evaluation marking scheme. When active threads of discussion
were supported by the students, they engaged in higher level learning
by problem-solving and collaborating.
Future directions
Based on our initial pilot with the bulletin board feature of WebCT, we
have gained a valuable insight into the potential power this learning
tool can offer our students. It is clear that the group must have something
to share in order for the experience to be successful. As such, it is
apparent that these great communications must be shared and that the students
do have important information to share with their peers. We need to consider
making participation mandatory to maintain active involvement. This may
either reinforce the value of the experience or conversely affect the
quality and degree of insight of the postings. Regardless, it is apparent
that some structure to the degree of participation must be introduced
to prevent the trailing off of communications. We will need to archive
some of the discussions so as to keep the bulletin board up-to-date with
new information. Grouping the students according to practice area may
help to increase their sense of accountability to their peers. In addition,
we want to offer more training as to the content of their postings. We
propose to do this during our preparatory seminars when we acquaint our
students to the bulletin board.
Providing the students with a means to become more familiar with the multitude of web-based technology applications will help to prepare them for the increased use of technology in their own professional careers. We hope that they will become life-long learners and access the World Wide Web for new information, share professional concerns in discussion rooms and participate in special interest groups. We intend to continue our bulletin board teaching and we are formalizing our research project to investigate learning outcomes in order to make this tool more useful rather than just interesting for our students.
- Synchronous discussions
- Lecture notes
- On-line quizzes
- Calendars
- Hyperlinks to web sites
- Bulletin boards
Benefits of Online Discussions
(Brown, 1997)
- Student chooses the time
- Student reflects before responding
- Student can research before responding
- No need to take turns in talking
- "Quiet" students have equal control
- Reduces language barriers
- Students can edit comments before posting
References and further reading
Armani, A. (2000). The Integrated Learning Model: A design experiment in web-based instruction. Paper presented at the Best Practice in Teaching with Technology, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. Nov. 1-3, 2000.
Brown, A. (1997). Designing for learning: What are the essential features of an effective online course? Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 13 (2), 115-126. Available at: http://wwwasu.murdoch.edu.au/ajet/ajet13/su97p115.html
Goldberg, M. (1997). Communication and collaboration tools in World Wide Web Course Tools (WebCT). Retrieved from the WWW in November, 2000 at: http://about.webct.com/library/comm.html.
Lajoie, S.P. (2000). Computers as cognitive tools, volume two: No more walls: Theory change, paradigm shifts, and their influence on the use of computers for instructional purposes. NJ: Earlbaum
Pintrich, R. P. (1995). Understanding self-regulated learning. New directions for teaching and learning, 63, 3-12.
Pychyl, T. (2000). Learning in the age of network intelligence: Enhancing first year seminars with the Web. Paper presented at the Best Practice in Teaching with Technology, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. Nov 1-3, 2000.
Vygotsky, L.S. (1962). Thought and language. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
Press release, October 11, 2000. The chronicle of higher education.
Retrieved from the WWW in November, 2000 at:
http://about.webct.com/news/chron_study.html.
Caroline Storr, M.B.A., OT(c). erg. is the Academic Clinical Coordinator for Occupational Therapy at McGill University and a faculty lecturer who has a keen interest in promoting Internet-based teaching in occupational therapy.
E-mail: cstorr@po-box.mcgill.ca or Tel. (514) 398-6561
Aliki Thomas, M.Ed., OT, erg. is the Assistant Academic Clinical Coordinator for Occupational Therapy at McGill University and a faculty lecturer. Her main research interest is self-directed learning in occupational therapy education.
E-mail: aliki.thomas@mcgill.ca or Tel. (514) 398-4496.
March/April 2001 Table of Contents
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