Further Evidence for Using Online Discussion Boards in the Classroom

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

Teaching of Psychology

Publication Date

4-1-2019

Abstract

© The Author(s) 2019. Recent research compared the use of case studies to online discussion boards to teach about anxiety disorders. The current study extends this research to mood disorders, reports pretest and posttest scores on four learning outcomes, and compares midterm exam scores from Fall 2016 and Fall 2017 when case studies and online discussion boards were used as supplementary learning material, respectively. The results indicate students in the discussion board condition (DBC) rated their learning outcomes significantly higher than students in the case study condition, and midterm exam scores were significantly higher for students who took part in the DBC as a learning exercise. These findings provide evidence that the usefulness of online discussion boards extends to other types of disorders and may even surpass the use of traditional case studies as a pedagogical tool when teaching about psychological disorders.

ISSN

0098-6283

Publisher

SAGE Publications Inc.

Volume

46

Issue

2

First Page

158

Last Page

163

Disciplines

Education | Medicine and Health Sciences

Keywords

abnormal psychology, case studies, classroom exercise, stigma

Scopus ID

85063154216

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

no

Link to Full Text

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