A Proposed Classification System for Online Forum Content

Student engagement with content, each other, lecturers and artefacts is a fundamental aspect of an active learning ethic. Covid era remote teaching revealed particular challenges in enabling, sustaining and cultivating forms of engagement. This paper presents a conceptual framework for considering the dimensions of online engagement based on a case study from a research-intensive institution in South Africa. The focus is on a second-year large-class Material Science course with a broad range of content requiring 600 + pages of reading, projects and practicals. The course has seen several innovations over the years. This paper examines forms of student engagement in established, structured online forums pre- and during the Covid era of teaching, and presents an analysis of engagement patterns drawing on a synthesis of learning typologies from a range of educational theories intended to inform possible affordances of online engagement. The data produced by the classification of forum posts under the proposed scheme can highlight their overall structure, monitor changes in posting behaviour over time, and potentially contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the role of online forums in student learning,