Motivating users to online participation. A practice-based comparison between moodle forums and telegram groups

Abstract

Moodle forums can be a great way to share course information, build community and allow students to easily shareresources and ideas. However, students’ day-to-day discussions are not happening in Moodle but in instant messagingapplications’ groups, such as WhatsApp or Telegram. This work explores how the students’ motivation and engagementwere affected by shifting the academic discussions from Moodle forums to Telegram groups, based on the results of 3 yearsof work, with two courses using forums and one using groups.The results show that the students perceive the Telegram groups as much more dynamic, closer and faster than theforums; groups also allowed a greater interaction between students (cooperation in the development and solution ofproblems). Data also show a greater engagement and activity of the students who joined the Telegram group in contrastwith those who used the Moodle forums. More than 90% of the students also indicated that they wish to continue to haveTelegram class-groups in the future.