DISCUSSION FORUM AS A LEARNING STRATEGY

The Internet has been redesigning the way society relates. Within this context, it is inevitable to notice its impact in the educational area. The Discussion Forum is one among many tools originated in the virtual environment; it enables the relationships between learners and teachers to be measured virtually. This study is based on the following inquiry: how does the interaction among participants of a Discussion Forum enables the establishment of a new way to learn? Our general goal was characterizing interaction processes among learners and teachers in a virtual environment for learning. Furthermore, our specific goals were identifying the interactions that occurred, characterizing the collective intelligence situations originated from these interactions, and finally analyzing the conversation guidelines used in the interactions in the Discussion Forums. This is a qualitative and exploratory study, based on bibliographic and documented research. The content of activities carried out through Discussion Forums in various moments of the discipline Audio Advertising, in the Social Communication Program were analyzed. The following outcomes were verified: the occurrence of teaching/learning situations, even when the teacher was not engaged in them; discussion with attachments encouraged a bigger participation among the participants in the forum; problems with spelling, grammar and informal language used in the forum interactions did not hinder the teaching/learning process; and finally, that this asynchronous activity engages learners outside the regular schedule of the discipline. In the end, evidences were found proving that the use of the strategy of discussion forums in virtual environments stimulates a new form of connection, capable of bridging the gap between the classroom and the digital natives’ life style.