Effect of online discussion forum in blended learning mode

The online discussion forums are popular platforms for information exchange and problem solving, which play an important role in blended learning mode, which is made up of SPOCs (Small Private Online Courses) and traditional classroom learning. However, very few studies have been published on the effect of online discussion forums in blended learning. In this study, we collected a comprehensive set of data from online discussion forum on the Experiment of Computer Composition course (a MOOC course). These data were classified based on the participants' interactive behavior and analyzed using the principal component analysis and regression analysis methods. Our results demonstrated that online discussion forums pose significant impact on blended learning and can provide valuable suggestions to improve learning outcome and progress.