Abstract

In sociology lessons, teachers typically incorporate class discussions into lesson designs as part of students’ learning activity, thus requiring students to think critically and understand the social events in the society. This small-scale qualitative study explored the impact of introducing students to an online discussion tool provided by Canvas in the teaching and learning of sociology. Data were collected qualitatively from five students who attended one of the junior colleges in Brunei Darussalam. The instruments used consisted of pre- and post-test essay questions, an online discussion board in Canvas, rubrics for online discussion participation and writing skills, and semistructured interviews. The results of the study revealed that the online discussion board encouraged students’ interest in online discussions relative to other instructional modalities. There were also satisfactory improvements with regards to students’ writing skills, although several problems still occurred mainly to do with their English-language skills. Despite the benefits and challenges in utilizing the online discussion tool by Canvas, all students conveyed their interests and willingness to further incorporate this tool into the learning of sociology.