Chapter 6: Do Moodle's Forums Foster Student Questioning?: The Students' Voice

Conscious of the importance of promoting student questioning to improve academic achievement, several teaching and learning strategies were implemented in two blended learning courses attended by first year undergraduates at the University of Aveiro (Portugal). Two of such strategies were implemented through Moodle's forums. Not all the students equally embraced the same strategies. There were many more questions posed orally than through the forums. Four of the students with better grades were interviewed in an attempt to understand their perceptions about the strategies and to sound out their suggestions for improvement. From the feedback provided by students it emerged that: students prefer strategies that involve shorter time for response, oral answers allow immediate clarifations, students prefer that their identities are hidden, e-mail notifications keep students alert, Moodle is easy to use, posting activities regularly makes students interact more in the forums, and Moodle is an advantage to get succinct answers.