The Role of Discussion Forum and Assignment Choice for Students with Different Educational Backgrounds

Educators regularly struggle with how to engage students in an environment in which students are increasingly distracted especially with online courses. Courses delivered online found a rapidly growing component of higher education since online delivery makes colleges and universities accessible to a more significant number of students at a fraction of the cost of in-person delivery. Therefore, The challenge for active student engagement increases considerably in online teaching and learning. The paper proposes an active-learning strategy to improve class engagement and enhance student learning by adapting the online discussion board for use during and out of the class session to keep students connected and engaged with the weekly topics. Student feedback shows that combining the technologies, synchronous teaching, and active learning activities in both online classes is effective for interactive learning and using student–content interactions, student-instructor interactions, and student-student interactions in online teaching and learning.