The primary research question of this project is the following: Will supplemental online discussion and skills practice improve the quality of developmental student writing?

The focus of the initial weeks of English 91 is the fundamentals of essay writing including thesis development, introductory paragraphs, supporting evidence, and citation format. In order to determine whether I could more effectively administer this curriculum and develop student writing skills, I developed a six week Blackboard project featuring twelve discussion boards. The project began the 2nd week of classes when students were learning and reviewing these skills and concluded in the 10th week (with an unforeseen three week delay in between).

The project focused on two English 91 sections, one that participated in the discussion board project and the other that did not. Other than the discussion board project that one class participated in, both classes were taught identically using the same class activities, assignments and syllabus. I sought to determine whether the DB (Discussion Board) class could identify basic essay components and apply them in their writing more effectively than the class without the supplemental practice. Discussion board topics included thesis development, supporting evidence, introductory paragraphs, peer response, revision, and citation format. Students were required to submit two original postings per week and respond to at least two classmates per posting.

The assessment took the form of a ten question multiple choice quiz which was administered at the blackboard site. Questions focused on the basic elements of essay organization which were addressed in the discussion boards. The results of the assessment proved surprising to me. Although the DB class did perform better on some questions, overall the class average was almost 2 percentage points lower than the nonDB class. There are some reasons that may account for this. First, the DB class did not perform as well overall in the general course assignments as did the nonDB class and had a much higher attrition rate. For this reason, they potentially did not perform well on this assessment despite the additional discussion board work. More significantly, since the classes did not take the quiz until the final class meeting, any initial increases in learning which were initiated by the discussion board project may have been counterbalanced by the learning in both classes that occurred throughout the rest of the semester.

Two modifications were required. I had intended to complete the project within the 1st six weeks of the semester. However, a death in my family delayed completion of the project by three weeks. Also, I had intended to administer the final assessment shortly after the project’s completion. However, the rigors of the semester prevented me from administering the assessment until the final exam.

I did not survey the discussion board students about their participation, but based on their discussion board responses, they felt that the online line work was valuable. Many wanted more online exercises to assist them in correct citation format. Students said they enjoyed viewing and responding to the classmates’ postings because it gave them an idea of how other students responded to the material. As an instructor, I find it a valuable option to have students independently complete online exercises that address various skills. The Rules for Writers site that we used corresponded to the course handbook that they were familiar with. They could independently complete these exercises, determine their scores and identify why an answer was correct or incorrect. This freed time for us to apply these skills in class. Other sites also provided students the opportunity to apply the skills learned in class.

Although empirically the results were not conclusive, intuitively I feel that utilizing discussion boards to supplement in-class learning is pedagogically sound, and I will continue to provide this kind of activity in my classes.