Assessing student contributions to online discussion boards

The use of online learning is prevalent in higher education, in particular the use of Blackboard and other similar virtual learning environments (VLEs). Students’ participation in online discussion forums is a common activity and the online threaded discussion tool provides opportunities for students to: • form collaborative groups for problem-based learning • discuss learning experiences • ponder over assessment issues • debate topics of interest. There is no shortage of research on the perceived effectiveness of online discussion forums; however, this paper evaluates the potential for assessing the content of online discussions as a means of contributing to summative assessment.