Comparison of online group discussion and class discussion learning for a soil mechanics class

Soil Mechanics had been a fundamental science material that needs a great understanding of the concept. Many attempts had been done in varying the study method for this course. An attempt to utilize online discussion learning will be discussed in this paper. To analyze the online learning experience, the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model was utilized. The CoI model divides the dynamic online learning process as social presence, teaching presence, and cognitive presence. This study aims to compare the application of CoI in the Soil Mechanics course between two different types of discussion under the Civil Engineering Department at a large public university in Indonesia. The students of the Soil Mechanics course were given two types of problem-based online discussions for two learning topics. The first one was a case study of Consolidation Settlement in a Group Discussion, while the second one was a case study of Seepage in a Class Discussion, which was done in one single discussion forum. Through quantitative analysis of the students’ discussion transcripts, it was found that cognitive presence was dominantly higher than teaching presence and social presence in both types of discussion. Finally, through an interview with students, it was found that students with active participation gain several benefits, among others, the better ability of systematic and critical thinking of interpreting a problem and growing sense of engineering compare to passive students.