A study of traditional discussion boards and socia media within an online landscape architecture course

Distributed design education is increasingly important in the education of designers. However, there is persistent concern about the ability of distributed design education to facilitate the rich communication necessary for the critiquing and collaboration that normally occurs within a design studio. This paper compares the use of a social networking site to a traditional discussion board in facilitating communication within an introduction to landscape architecture course. The study found that students engaged in more meaningful discussion when using the social networking site, but that the social networking site did not produce any measurable improvement in the quantity or depth of interactions between students. The results suggest that social networking sites alter the type of communication students engage in, but should utilize students’ existing social networks to be most effective as there is insufficient time within an individual course for students to build a new social network around their course peers. The study concludes that emphasis should be placed on how pedagogical decisions might foster improved communication between students, and suggests that pairing social networking sites with additional pedagogical requirements could produce substantial gains.