Using Bulletin Boards in an Educational Setting

Online bulletin boards (threaded message postings) are widely used in many organizations. Many firms use them to share information with customers, suppliers, and employees and to provide support services. Bulletin boards can be an important tool in distance education and traditional classroom-based teaching. They can be used to discuss cases or readings, to communicate with and among participants, and to improve the productivity of group assignments.

Used properly, bulletin boards can be extremely effective; misused, participants can easily become frustrated. We have used bulletin boards in our traditional classes for nine years and in distance education for six years. Over time, we have learned how to make the best use of this technology for different tasks, in different environments, and with different types of students.

The advantages of bulletin boards include:

• Students can participate in discussions while traveling for work.
• All students typically participate in the discussion, a rare occurrence in class. This is particularly helpful in getting foreign students to participate.
• The quality of the discourse is better than in-class discussions. Most of the comments/arguments are better articulated and students can support their positions by linking to Web sites.
• More issues can be considered during an online discussion than in a typical class session.
• Students develop written communication skills.
• Students can discuss cases or work in groups without regard to schedules or time zones.

However, students and instructors spend more time on bulletin board discussions than they do for a similar in-class discussion. Student surveys suggest that online case discussions require twice the time required for an in-class discussion. For faculty, the demands can be even greater.

There are a variety of requirements necessary to set up and use a bulletin board system effectively, as described here.

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Software Requirements

Bulletin board software, at a minimum, enables participants to post messages on a Web site that others can view. Messages that are posted remain until the board owner deletes them. Software to host and manage bulletin boards has become quite sophisticated. It allows board administrators to easily set up public and private boards, control the discourse, and gather usage statistics. Participants can search for content based on keywords, view only new messages, and upload files.

Bulletin board software must include a number of features for its use in education to be productive. The software must:

• Be able to identify individual participants (login) so that participants’ actions are known (such as reading notes or posting notes). Anonymous use may be appropriate for certain actions (for example, class feedback).
• Be capable of threaded discussions. If a participant replies to a posting, the reply should appear indented below the original note, appearing in the posted order.
• Allow participants to directly email any poster.
• Allow private or public read/write access to all major threads on a board. For a private thread, the board administrator allows certain participants to view the contents.
• Allow a board administrator to email all participants.
• Allow participants to upload and download files, post hyperlinks, and search using keywords.
• Have an effective help system.

Many popular e-learning products (such as Blackboard and WebCT) have these capabilities.

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Bulletin board discussions, whether they are topical or case-related, must be set up carefully and must be supervised.

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Participant Training

Participants must be trained to use the system properly. Improper use of the system by a participant results in frustration and inefficiency. Particular attention must be paid to proper posting of notes as new threads and replies to an earlier posting. New threads should only be created when a participant wishes to post an unrelated note. Participants must learn to use the reply function to respond to a note others have posted and to use email when their response is only useful to the individual who posted the note.

We enforce this discipline in two ways. From the beginning we delete postings that have been posted as new threads when they should have been a reply, and we post a comment next to an out-of-place posting, indicating to which thread the posting should have been made. Before long, participants learn to use the system properly.

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Setting Up a Board

Each board should be set up with level-one threads that pertain to the major online discussions planned (an example is illustrated in Figure 1). The first level-one thread on the board is for announcements. We ask participants to monitor this thread two to three times a week. This is an alternative to emailing announcements; it is non-intrusive and allows easy access to earlier announcements. Next, we create level-one threads for each major discussion topic for the course. Thread headings match the names of cases and topics from the syllabus.

For each case, an instructor should set up three to five level-two threads, each describing an issue that should be discussed (an example is shown in Figure 2). Students are encouraged to add level-two threads to raise other issues. It is important to set up level-two threads for each subtopic in order to focus the discussion.

Discussion of course topics on a board should be limited to no more than three a semester, for courses that include regular face-to-face meetings. For courses that do not include face-to-face meetings, there should be a level-one thread for each major course topic.

The use of private threads to support group work can be very useful. A level-one thread should be created for each group and participants should only be able to view their group’s thread. These private threads are used to discuss issues, and share information and documents with teammates. Private group threads are particularly useful for part-time students, because it is often difficult for them to meet face-to-face.

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Using a Board in a Traditional Educational Environment

Bulletin board discussions, whether they are topical or case-related, must be set up carefully and must be supervised.

• There must be a start and stop date for each discussion, with durations between 7–10 days. A shorter period does not allow everyone an opportunity to participate.
• Instructors must monitor the discussions and provide feedback to students on the board or via email. Providing positive feedback on the board is important. Negative feedback should be sent via email.
• There should be no more than 50 participants. Larger numbers make the discussion difficult to follow. To accommodate more participants, we split them into groups of 50 and use different boards.
• An instructor should use the board to provide external information relevant to the issues, and to synthesize points, highlight contradictions, inconsistencies, or gaps in the discussion.
• An instructor should end a discussion with a wrap-up during a face-to-face session, or on the announcements thread in a virtual classroom.
• Private group threads need only be monitored if the instructor wishes to provide guidance to groups as they work.

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Using a Board in a Virtual Environment

Using a bulletin board in an environment where the students do not meet physically can present unique problems. The use of this technology is essential for facilitating effective learning in distance education classes. Our experience has been in bringing groups of students from different universities together to discuss cases or work on problems. In addition to the guidelines presented earlier, all the instructors involved must be adept at using the software and must teach their students to use the system effectively. Each instructor must take responsibility for monitoring the board and their students’ participation. It is also critical that there should not be much difference in the importance of the exercise to a student’s course grade across students from different universities. Large differences in the importance of the exercise can greatly affect participation and benefits. Before an exercise begins, the objectives must be clearly stated. Providing examples from similar exercises is helpful. A series of intermediate tasks must be assigned and each task must have clearly defined expectations and must result in specific output (product). At the outset, students should be told not to post negative, personal messages on the board. Personal attacks are more likely when participants never meet face-to-face.

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Conclusion

Bulletin boards can be a very useful tool in education. They allow even the most introverted students an opportunity to be heard. The greatest benefit is that the online discussions are of a much higher quality than typical in-class discussions, because they allow participants time to assimilate what has been said and to compose their responses. Our students have benefited greatly from exercises involving students at other universities. They are exposed to thoughts and cultures they do not receive in a traditional classroom environment.

However, bulletin board use is more time consuming for everyone involved. Even when the number of participants is less than 50, a student can easily spend 4–6 hours on a case discussion, in addition to preparation time. For an exercise to be effective, an instructor should plan on spending a minimum of 10 hours online for a case that is discussed in an hour and a half in a face-to-face setting.

We believe bulletin boards produce richer, more effective learning for a greater number of students than is achieved through exclusive use of traditional face-to-face discussions. The additional time required is manageable and is more than compensated for by the increased learning opportunities presented.

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