Methodology
The programme had about 120 students in 2003/2004, divided into 9 groups for teaching purposes. The on-line discussion took place in the first four weeks of the second semester. The educational purpose of the on-line discussion, which we did nor evaluate in this study, was to help students improve their ability to read an academic article, to take part in discussions on such an article and to experience this via StudyNet. As with most of the teaching on this programme, the purpose of this is twofold: to improve students' language and study skills, and also to experience using StudyNet in preparation for their future academic lives. They were given very clear instructions about exactly what was required of them and their contribution was assessed, in order to encourage full participation.
The on-line discussion element was worth 6.25% of the coursework element of the course for the semester. All the students discussed the same article and were told they could read the article on-line, print it out or copy it to their own computers. At the end of this discussion period, the lecturers evaluated the students' contributions. The assessment consisted of a combination of the quantity of contributions to the discussion and the quality - ideas, interaction and language. In other words, students were rewarded for contributing more than the minimum, as well as using the activity as a learning tool, not simply as a bare assessment. The students were then asked about what they felt about doing this activity and what they learned from it. This was done via a questionnaire in which students were asked how they took part in the discussion, what they felt about taking part in the discussion and what they thought they learned from it. The questionnaire was given to all the students who had taken part and they were asked to complete it in class time. This was done in weeks seven and eight, three to four weeks after having completed the activity. The questionnaire consisted of twenty-two questions, divided into multiple choice and short-answer questions. The rationale behind the questionnaire was to assess the perceived worthiness of the task by the students.
The students were told that a grade would be given for their contribution to this discussion, and that a good contribution consisted of demonstrating knowledge of the article and making a relevant contribution to the discussion in appropriate English. They were instructed to make their first contribution by the end of week 2 of the semester and their second by the end of week three. Two contributions was the bare minimum if they wanted to pass and more was expected for a good mark. Each contribution had to be four or five sentences.