246+Al-Jarf

The King Saud University Online Discussion Forums || Reima Al-Jarf, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, reemasado@msn.com || Since April 2007, my university has been witnessing radical changes at all levels. New deanships, colleges, centers, programs, a new portal and e-services were established. A number of discussion forums were created as part of the university website to help faculty and students express their views, share information and knowledge, communicate their needs and propose ideas for development and improvement. Examples of the discussion forum categories are: University Strategic Plan, National Center for Youth Research, Vice-presidency for academic affairs, Vice-Presidency for Development, Knowledge Forum, Graduate Programs, Deanships of Skill Development, Library, Electronic Transactions, Distance and eLearning, Community Colleges, Quality and e-publishing Policy, and Portal and eServices Forums. So far, the KSU forums have 2035 members, who have posted 2486 discussion topics and 6699 posts. Although those discussion forums seem to be comprehensive and all-inclusive, they are not effectively used by the colleges, centers, faculty and students. About half of those forums have low or no interaction (an average of one post per day). Some students post anything anywhere and most comments are just compliments. Although the KSU forums have no terms and conditions of use, the majority of students and faculty members do not seem to care about those forums, as they feel nobody will listen to their suggestions or will not tolerate their critiques. The study will investigate the causes of inadequate participation in the KSU discussion forums. Findings of a survey that show why students and faculty do not participate in those discussion forums will be reported. || Paper Forum Paper All ||
 * **Submission ID 246 (withdrawn -byk)** ||
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