The Use and Functions of Students’ Personal Stories in Online Discussion Forums

Personal stories serve learning and socioemotional functions in teaching. Instructors share personal stories with students to promote engagement, foster learning, and create a sense of community. Students may also share personal stories with each other for similar reasons. Thus, the current study explored how often, and why, students (N = 79) shared personal stories as well as responded to other students’ stories in online discussion forums (ODFs) that were part of a remotely taught adult development and aging class. The students ODF posts (f = 1,354) were content-coded for: (i) whether they contained a personal story, (ii) were a direct response to another students’ personal story, and (iii) whether they served a teach and inform, empathic, or social-bonding function. Twenty-two percent of the posts made in the ODFs were personal stories, and almost half served a teach and inform function. Ten percent of students’ posts were responses to other students’ personal stories, and primarily served empathic and social-bonding functions. Results highlight the possibility that students can engage with one another to foster the pedagogical benefits of personal stories and provide insights into how personal stories can be infused into teaching and learning.