Exemplar of online communication

Trading Room: a professionally-focused online community

Dianne Thomson School of Accounting, Economics and Finance	Pam Mulready Lecturer, Teaching and Learning

In MAF306 International Finance and Investment, students engage online using a blog called 'Trading Room' to exchange ideas, comments and research findings on current developments in finance markets. The blog is not a forum to online share trading or currencies as the name may suggest, but an online chat room for the exchange of information. Communications in the Trading Room are part of the assessment for the unit.

About the unit

MAF306 aims to develop an understanding of international finance markets, institutions and instruments. Students are introduced to the complexities involved in cross-border transactions and learn to analyse international parity conditions, foreign exchange markets, instruments and exchange rate systems.

About the Trading Room

Students are required to adopt the role of a finance professional and critically reflect on emergent international finance issues and case studies introduced by an avatar, Alfie D, throughout the semester. This assessment task is worth 15% of the final grade. Students are required to post to their personal blog in the Trading Room at least once a fortnight, and to incorporate comments from the blog posts of other students.

The assessment task used standard assessment criteria and required reference to and demonstrated knowledge of subject content, active and respectful engagement with the ideas and opinions of others, and appropriate use of supportive materials and referencing.

Advantages of the blog format

The Trading Room aimed to develop a professional finance community that would allow for student networking and life-long professional development.

The blog and assessment format not only made each student's work visible to their peers, but also involved interaction with their peers' work. This provided an open and collaborative forum that helped inspire students, encouraged reflection, and also minimised plagiarism.

Note: For information about using blogs in teaching and learning at Deakin, see: Social software.

Download video (39 MB). View transcript (34 KB).

Trading Room (click link to enlarge picture)	Discussion Forums (click link to enlarge picture)	Profile Pages (click link to enlarge picture)

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