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The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of structured discussion forums on students´ learning in computer science courses that were entirely conducted online. More specifically, the study proposed a structure for discussion forums and investigated its impact on the acquisition of the three kinds of knowledge: know-what, know-how, and know-why. Know-what refers to knowledge about facts, know-how refers to the ability to do something, and know-why refers to knowledge about causality nature, in the human mind and in society. The second research question examined the impact of structured discussion forums on the improvement of collaborative skills by the students. In addition, the study investigated whether there is a relationship between students´ active participation and the level of knowledge they have acquired from the discussion forum.

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Dr. Moanes H. Tibi holds Bachelor´s and Master´s (Diplom) degrees in Computer Science from the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn in Germany. He earned his Ph.D. from Bar-Ilan University. His doctoral dissertation dealt with structuring online computer science courses for better students´ knowledge acquisition of different kinds.

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