How Can I Create Engaging Discussions?
Creating Effective and Active Discussions Workshop
Discussions are a common way to achieve student-to-student interaction and active
learning in online courses. Join a group of your peers for a 60-min workshop led by
the Faculty Online Learning Liaison Kristen Swithers on creating effective discussions
for your online course.
We will explore different types of discussions and examine different strategies for
deploying discussions in your course. Whether you are looking to revamp your discussions
or build new ones you will leave this workshop with ideas for generating meaningful
discussions that encourage student engagement.
Register
Schedule:
April 15, 10:30 am - 11:45 am
Resources
Engaging students in rich dialog in online asynchronous courses supports the same
purpose as in-class discussions. It also supports student success. Students who feel
isolated in online courses have a great chance of dropping the course. Help students
stay motivated and engaged by adding weekly Blackboard discussions.
Online Discussion Guidelines for Students Template
Online Discussions
Students succeed in asynchronous online courses when they are engaged in reflective
discourse and meaning-making. Use discussions to create a space where students can
engage with peers and yourself to construct knowledge and connect concepts. Discussions
are most suited to higher-level outcomes, like analyze and evaluate, where students
can demonstrate critical-thinking skills, evaluation and reflection.
Online discussions are also a critical tool for meeting federal regulation requirements
for "regular and substantive interactions" (RSI) as part of the Higher Education Act
for online courses. To learn more about RSI, please visit the What is RSI?
Discussions are one of the best types of formative assessments for online courses.
It's a great place for students to brainstorm and practice new skills. While sharing
many similarities with methods for fostering in-class interactions, online tools offer different opportunities, and limitations, in creating meaningful interactions between students and instructors.
Provide Open-Ended Guiding Questions
If there is only one answer there will not be much discussion. To keep a discussion
going, provide open-ended, ethical or situational guided questions. Provide meaty
questions where students will need to understand and apply multiple levels of constructed
knowledge in order to present a convincing argument. Learn more about probing discussion questions.
Example
- Ineffective closed question: What are the 4 primary causes of the U.S. Civil War?
- Effective: What are the 4 primary causes of the U.S. Civil War? Which side had more to lose and
why?
- Substantive: What are the 4 primary causes of the U.S. Civil War? Which side had more to lose and
why? How does the final outcome of the war continue to impact the United States today?
Don’t Get Bogged Down in the Details
Discussions that require a certain amount of words, replies or strict citation tend
to stop the flow of dialog. Use the forums as a casual place to form logical arguments and opinions. Use low-stakes discussions as a safe place to practice citations without penalty.
Connect real-world application to the discussion to connect the conversation to the
field or industry.
- Ineffective: Do you think the manager in the case study was justified in her actions?
- Effective: Do you think the manager in the case study was justified in her actions? Why or why
not?
- Substantive: Do you think the manager in the case study was justified in her actions? Why or why
not? In addition to the course readings and resources for this week, reference an
article related to this case study topic you researched from the CCRI Library in your
response.
Community-Building Boards
Collaboration
Online discussions can be a great way to help build a learning community among your
students. Social learning is key for many students to learn and excel in a course.
You can encourage social learning by giving the students space to interact, even if
it is not directly related to the course. As with all online discussions you will
need to set clear guidelines and expectations. However, allowing students some ownership
or autonomy in a discussion space is a good way to encourage them to take ownership
over their educational experience while building meaningful relationships with instructors
and students.
Every Course Needs Introductions
The icebreaker forum provides the first student-student and student-instructor asynchronous
interactions in a course. Its focus is usually not cognitive but community-building
and social engagement. There are an infinite number of ways to structure an introduction
forum, here are a few common forums.
- Ask students to set achievable performance goals for the course. This can include
asking students to identify areas where they could improve study habits.
- Students post introductory information and share demographic information Provide students
with the basic expectations for the course.
- Ask students to build their own course contract which outlines netiquette and expected
behavior. Learn more from Facing History.
- Have students define their ideas about the field, overarching big questions and topics
or focus of the course. This can help stimulate curiosity and connect your course
to their great learning goals.
Allow Students to Lead
Designate a leader for each discussion. Ask the leader to post guiding questions from
the week’s content, lecture or assessments. Having a leader discussion provides students
the opportunity to use their diverse perspectives and to gain skills as a self-regulated
learner. Learn more about student-led discussions.
Ranking and the Blame Game
Ask students to rank or assign credit/blame on a scale of 1-10 using central ideas,
concepts, people or events. Ranking encourages students take the lead in assigning
value and backing up their choices through opinions and argument. This type of discussion
encourage participation and support deeper critical-thinking. Learn more about the Ranking Game from Teaching Professor.
Visible Assignments
Online discussions are a great way to have students contribute and view more formal
writing or thinking assignments. Having students post their assignments to a discussion
board allows other students to see and interact with other students’ writing assignments.
Instructors can also use the format to leave example feedback for students to see.
Conduct a Peer Review
Students can post drafts of papers, presentations or projects to a forum. Provide
a short rubric or checklist to guide a peer review. Ask students to review more than
one student to create a rich textual exchange between peers. This is also a great
way to cut down on your grading workload, as a peer review can help eliminate low
level draft issues. Learn more about peer review discussions.
Provide a Problem Set
Collaborative problem-solving is a successful way to help remove content bottlenecks.
Peer interactions are used widely in large format class and work well in discussion
forums. Give students a problem set that is just beyond their current capabilities.
Ask them to solve it together. Learn more about peer interactions from Eric Mazur.
Learn more about peer instruction.
Try a Fishbowl
A Fishbowl Discussion is a great stand-by in the classroom. Fishbowl discussions support small group work
and encourage students to take the lead.
Facilitate Group Work
Setting up individual discussion spaces based on groups is an effective way to spark
interaction. Breaking students into smaller groups builds accountability and encourages
student interactions as smaller groups make it harder for students to “hide” online.
You can use Group Discussion Boards to conduct collaborative lab reports, presentations,
projects, and team papers. Learn more about group work in discussions.
Try a Jigsaw Discussion
Jigsaw works well for introducing small group work to online students. Jigsaw discussions
create interaction in and across small groups which builds student confidence as contributors
and active listeners. View the Jigsaw infographic to learn more.