Learning Through Discussions in

This paper reports research into the student experience of learning through discussions in a blended environment. Third year engineering students studying e-commerce engaged in both face-to-face discussions and online asynchronous discussions as key aspects of their learning experience. Adopting a quantitative methodology, questionnaires based on what students thought they were learning through discussions, and how they went about engaging in face-to-face and online discussions were developed. These questionnaires, and another based on the Course Experience Questionnaire redeveloped for the subject, were issued to students at the end of their learning experience. The results suggest qualitatively different experiences of learning through discussions. The results show that students’ views of discussing both online and face-to-face are related to their experience of learning as a whole. It shows that the way they approach discussions is related to aspects of their experience such as what they think they are supposed to be learning from the discussions, how they perceive the teaching of the subject, and how they relate the goals and standards of the subject to the discussions. The results also show that students who have a deep understanding of how the discussions are related to their learning outcomes, tend to approach the discussions in more meaningful ways. In the face-to-face context, their approach emphasises learning through the experience of others, and in the online environment, their approach emphasises reflecting on the problems discussed from a variety of perspectives.