Brief description

In the forum, groups of students formulate their own questions on specific course topics and answer questions from other groups. Results can then be summarised in a Wiki or glossary.

Objectives

• Active involvement with the course contents and concepts in conjunction with course
• Structuring time for responses and follow-up discussions and intensifying exam preparation
• Practising group work

Tools

The Stud.IP forum is ideal for gathering questions, as well as for evaluating contributions. In addition you need participant administration for the function “Message to all participants” and News for announcements.

Procedure

Encourage the students to form groups – the forum is ideal for this. Then create the groups under “Participants -> Function / Groups” and activate self-enrolment. Create folders on the forum for upcoming rounds of questions and explain the rules in one of the folders.

Post sample questions on the forum for the groups to answer by a specific date. Then have each of the groups produce a question themselves and post it on the forum and answer the question of another group. From here on you should be able to leave the question and answer game entirely to the students.

Documentation

At the end of the course you can create a forum reader with the best questions and answers. They can be converted for word processing using copy-paste, and then made available for download in the files area. This stage of documentation can if necessary also be handled by a group. Explanations of terms can be entered in Wiki as a glossary.

Support

The E-Learning-Service is happy to help you with questions about the conception, realisation and evaluation of blended-learning scenarios.

Literature

On forming a group:
Häfele, H./ Maier-Häfele, K. (2004): „Tipps zur Gruppenbildung“, in 101 e-Learning Seminarmethoden, managerSeminare Verlags GmbH, Bonn (ISBN 3-936075-07-7), S. 350-351.

The discussion forum as a tool:
Häfele, H./ Maier-Häfele, K. (2004): „Das Diskussionsforum“, in 101 e-Learning Seminarmethoden, managerSeminare Verlags GmbH, Bonn (ISBN 3-936075-07-7), S. 41-48.

This blended-learning-scenario is based upon a project realized within the „Win a Tutor“-programme at Bremen University (ZMML).