Asynchronous online discussion activities to support university students' self–directed learning: opportunities and challenges identified

Abstract

Singapore has identified self-directed learning (SDL) as one of the key learning outcomes for her information technology in education master plan 3. However, teachers may not know how to design activities that could cater for student SDL, and students themselves may face difficulties in using this approach in their learning. We believe that the use of a particular social media tool, the asynchronous online discussion forum, could support students' SDL. The purpose of this paper is to share how we planned and implemented the use of an asynchronous online discussion forum along with the specific pedagogical activities. We will explain why this particular approach was able to foster students' self-direction in learning based on the empirical findings collected from 20 participants at the National Institute of Education (Singapore). We also discuss the opportunities and challenges of using this particular approach and suggest several relevant areas for future research.