THE USE OF THE INTERNET: THE FORUM AS AN AID TO UNIVERSITY COURSES. A MODEL OF KNOWLEDGE INTEGRATION AND CHANGE

1. BACKGROUND

The use of the Internet as a support to teaching is by now a reality in many Italian universities. The Faculty of Psychology in Padua has offered this opportunity for the past four years. The Forum is run by the teacher and lasts the length of the course itself (6 weeks). The forum can be used as information swapping and in-depth development of topics dealt with in class. It may also function as alternative teaching.

2. THE CASE

Alongside messages with didactic information, topics already approached and developed in class are posted. In a 30-hour course on Sociology of communication, based mainly on face-to-face or technology interpersonal communication, there is not much leeway. The students attending the course could join the Forum through the site “materiale didattico [teaching material]”. The students that joined were 234; those that actually utilized the Forum to get or give information were 1838; and those that read the post were 5775.
Using the Forum cannot be considered distance teaching as such, but it allows “delayed” participation at a time when both the student and the teacher are free from other activities and can engage in “going in depth” into some topics because they wish to or because they are asked to do so.
Limited fruition of the Forum is often not due to the competence required for its use but rather because no computer is available and/or lack of opportunity of use. The reasons that encourage students to access the Forum can be either negative (fear of teacher’s checking on them) or positive (greater opportunity for participation).

3. CONCLUSIONS

The following students’ tendencies have been observed: the Forum is considered an active and projectual dimension useful to increase the utilization of the Internet; it increases opportunities for learning; it offers the opportunity of getting to know fellow students better; it is not an e-learning course where everything is done from a distance.