MDB as an Effective Platform of Communication between Students and Teachers A Study of the Virtual University of Pakistan



Abstract

The integration of distance learning and Information Communication tech-nology has brought a lot of convenience for the students who were earlier facing problems in education due to time and geographical limitations. Since the concept of e-learning is comparatively new and different, the discourse on teaching methodologies and the student–teacher relationship in an e-learning environment has brought many new dimensions under discussion. In a virtual system, the communication bonding between a student and a teacher is not so strong. Students are dependent on one-way communication in the form of recorded lectures, published announcements, and information given on a website. Bridging the communication gap between a student and a teacher through MDB (Moderate Discussion Board) is an effective step taken by the Virtual University of Pakistan in online education to address students. The presented research was aimed at investigating the effectiveness of MDB as an interaction platform between students and course instructors at the Virtual University of Pakistan. The effectiveness of MDBs was measured through analysing the number of MDBs posted in a certain course and the nature of questions asked in MDBs by students. It was a quantitative study in which two Mass Communication subjects were selected through purposive sampling. The collected data were analysed in percentages, and a statistical test Correlation was applied to find out if there was some relation between the strength of students and questions asked through MDB. The study found that although the number of MDBs is quite lower than that of enrolled students, it is an effective platform of communication between students and a teacher, as students can ask questions related to subject, exams, semester activities, and general concerns.


Keywords

e-learning; MDB; communication gap; virtual system

Akyol, Z. & Garrison, D. R. (2009). Community of inquiry in adult online learning: Collaborative constructivist approaches. In T. T. Kidd (Ed.), Adult learning in the digital age: Perspectives on online technologies and outcomes (pp. 65–83). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

AlJeraisy, M. N., Mohammad, H., Fayyoumi, A., & Alrashideh, W. (2015). Web 2.0 in education: The impact of discussion board on student performance and satisfaction. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 14(2), 247–258.

Baig, M. A. (2011). A critical study of effectiveness of online learning on students’ achievement. I-manager’s Journal of Educational Technology, 7(4), 28–34. DOI: 10.26634/jet.7.4.1391.

Chang, F. C.-I. (2002). Intelligent assessment of distance learning. Information Sciences, 140(1), 105–125.

Keegan, D. (1996). The foundation of distance education. London: Croom Helm.

Marino, K. J. (2012). A qualitative study exploring faculty perception and adaptation of social presence in the online classroom. Dissertation. Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs), 1796. Accessed 5 May 2018. Retrieved from https://scholarship.shu.edu/dissertations/1796.

Mateo, J. & Sangra, A. (2007). Designing online learning assessment through alternative approaches: Facing the concerns. Accessed 5 May 2018. Retrieved from http://www.eurodl.org/?keyword=online%20learning&article=294.

Nage-Sibande, A. & Morolong, B. (2018). A trend analysis of opportunities and challenges of open and distance learning provision in dual-mode institutions. Distance Education, 39(4), 495–510. Accessed 15 April 2018. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01587919.2018.1457951?scrol....

Nsiah, G. & Oti-Boadi, M. (2015). Assessing the effectiveness of distance education within the context of traditional classroom. Creative Education, 6, 707–710. Accessed 15 April 2018. Retrieved from https://file.scirp.org/pdf/CE_2015051915571007.pdf.

Sun, A. & Chen, X. (2016). Online education and its effective practice: A research review. Journal of Information Technology Education: Research, 15, 157–190. Accessed 15 April 2018. Retrieved from http://www.informingscience.org/Publications/3502.

Terzİ, S. & Çelİk, A. (2005).Teacher-student interactions in distance learning. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 4(1), 54–56.

Tu, C.-H. & McIsaac, M. (2002). The relationship of social presence and interaction in online classes. The American Journal of Distance Education, 16(3), 131–150.

York, C. S. & Richardson, J. C. (2012). Interpersonal interaction in online learning: Experienced online instructors’ perceptions of influencing factors. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Network, 16(4), 83–98.

Published : 2021-02-01


SaleemN., DinA., SadiqS., & AhmedM. (2021). MDB as an Effective Platform of Communication between Students and Teachers A Study of the Virtual University of Pakistan. International Journal of Research in E-Learning, 4(2), 61-75. Retrieved from https://www.journals.us.edu.pl/index.php/IJREL/article/view/8353

Nadia Saleem 
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6990-7474

PhD, Department of Mass Communication, Virtual University of Pakistan, Pakistan


Aisha M Din 
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6266-5444

Lecturer at Department of Mass Communication, Virtual University of Pakistan


Saba Sadiq 
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8130-7626

Lecturer at Department of Mass Communication, Virtual University of Pakistan


Masroor Ahmed 
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1702-0337

Instructor at Department of Mass Communication, Virtual University of Pakistan





Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

The Copyright Owners of the submitted texts grant the Reader the right to use the pdf documents under the provisions of the Creative Commons 4.0 International License: Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY SA). The user can copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose.

1. License

The University of Silesia Press provides immediate open access to journal’s content under the Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Authors who publish with this journal retain all copyrights and agree to the terms of the above-mentioned CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

2. Author’s Warranties

The author warrants that the article is original, written by stated author/s, has not been published before, contains no unlawful statements, does not infringe the rights of others, is subject to copyright that is vested exclusively in the author and free of any third party rights, and that any necessary written permissions to quote from other sources have been obtained by the author/s.

If the article contains illustrative material (drawings, photos, graphs, maps), the author declares that the said works are of his authorship, they do not infringe the rights of the third party (including personal rights, i.a. the authorization to reproduce physical likeness) and the author holds exclusive proprietary copyrights. The author publishes the above works as part of the article under the licence "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International".

ATTENTION! When the legal situation of the illustrative material has not been determined and the necessary consent has not been granted by the proprietary copyrights holders, the submitted material will not be accepted for editorial process. At the same time the author takes full responsibility for providing false data (this also regards covering the costs incurred by the University of Silesia Press and financial claims of the third party).

3. User Rights

Under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, the users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit the contribution) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material) the article for any purpose, provided they attribute the contribution in the manner specified by the author or licensor.

4. Co-Authorship

If the article was prepared jointly with other authors, the signatory of this form warrants that he/she has been authorized by all co-authors to sign this agreement on their behalf, and agrees to inform his/her co-authors of the terms of this agreement.

I hereby declare that in the event of withdrawal of the text from the publishing process or submitting it to another publisher without agreement from the editorial office, I agree to cover all costs incurred by the University of Silesia in connection with my application.