1. A grassroots demonstration by Nokwanda Mbusi

2. Features  A method of communication with students.  Allows interaction between lecturer and students and amongst students themselves.  Does not require all participants to be online simultaneously - learners interact at a time that suits the individual learner.  Able to upload files rather than being constrained to text messages.  User statistics: viewing postings, tracking threads, creating topics for discussion and posting responses to existing topics.

3. Impact  Provides a platform that fosters the sharing of ideas.  Encourages and supports collaboration - opportunities for dialogue, discussion, debate - learners can critically evaluate each other’s ideas. Challenges  Level of participation by learners - the reluctance of some learners to actively participate.  Availability of computers and internet.

4. Lecturer intervention  Need for lecturer to visit the forum frequently – e. g. a student may be requiring a response on where to find a certain thread and it would be better to get feedback sooner than later.  Lecturer giving direction – e. g. in case of posts being ‘out of order’.  Expressing opinions or observations – e.g. making a connection between students’ posts.  Commenting on or asking for clarification of a student's statement.  Encouraging participation by giving a positive response.  Awarding ‘bonus marks’ to encourage participation.

5.  Student marks are captured.  Students can access their marks privately through “My marks” from their course menu – avoiding public display of marks.  As lecturer adds marks to the Grade Centre, students can be alerted about poor performance – quick comment or feedback to students.  Data is exported and imported between Grade Centre and excel by downloading and uploading files.