The long and grueling process of writing my final, 10-page research paper is well underway. It has always been my opinion that starting a research paper, gathering the required sources, citing them, and developing a thesis are the hardest parts in the entire process. I certainly hope that’s the case, because it was very time-consuming and hard!
I decided to write my research paper about online forums because I thought that it would suit the task nicely and is something I am very familiar with. I have long been an active member in my favorite forum, SDN, the Student Doctor Network. SDN was invaluable in helping me to decide to pursue a career in dentistry as well as establishing the optimal route to achieve that goal. Thus, I thought I knew enough about forums in general to be able to write a research paper on them. The biggest problem, however, was coming up with a thesis.
I knew that my thesis should have something to do with learning in online forums. I decided on “learning in online forums is, oftentimes, more effective than traditional face-to-face learning.” Whether this claim was true or not, I had no idea. The next step was trying to get sources to support my argument.
I requested the help of the UB-librarian to help me in my search. She gave me a lead, “Learning in Online Forums”, which is a study that highlights the major pros and cons of online, discussion-based learning. This was very exciting for me because this source set the stage for my additional sources, all of which I dug up through the online UB libraries.
I now have five additional sources to complement the first source the librarian sent my way. All of them analyze online-discussion based learning in a unique way and offer new insight into categorizing the learning that takes place in these e-based venues. One paper examines the psychological aspects involved in online-based discussions. Another paper examined the extent of stance-taking and stance-support in online discussion posts made by Singaporean high school students. This breadth of interesting information directly related to my topic is very exciting! With my annotated bibliography finished, I am looking forward to tackling writing this paper!
nourishment4brain 