Online discussions as an intervention for strengthening students' engagement in general education

Research suggests that students are skeptical about the values of General Education courses. This revelation calls for different strategies to improve students' engagement in the classes, including the use of online learning platforms. This study documents students' experiences of the online discussion forum as a tool for strengthening their engagement in the Social Sciences context of General Education. Data collection and analyses were conducted using quantitative and qualitative strategies involving learning analytics and critical incident questionnaire. The findings revealed that the forum aided students' engagement and learning in the courses, especially when reading and responding to colleagues' posts and relating topics to their personal experiences. Despite this, the findings showed that students' engagement was hampered while interfacing with each other on the platform when colleagues repeated ideas, and discussions were inconsistent with their personal experiences. The results suggested that constructive feedback, clear guidelines, and reflective questions can strengthen students' engagement and learning in online discussions. Based on the findings, implications for practice and stakeholders are discussed.