How do I make online discussions less overwhelming and more authentic?

Instructional Solutions

1. Groups using group tool: For setting up group discussions, you can use the Group tool within CourseDen so that students only see posts by members of their group. To keep students engaged, you could assign each member of the group certain roles, such as facilitator, recorder, presenter, reflector, and questioner. Using Roles in Group Work explains one method you can use to implement roles in your classroom discussion. Although some of the suggestions are for face-to-face classes, you can easily adapt these instructions for online discussions. For example, instead of post-it notes and placecards, you can simply use a discussion post or email to the group. The benefits of using groups with roles include: 

   • Group roles offer an opportunity for high-quality, focused interactions between group participants. Participants are more likely to stay on task and pay closer attention to the task at hand when their roles in the collaboration are clear and distinct.

   • Group roles provide all students with a clear avenue for participation. Students are less likely to feel left out or unengaged when they have a particular duty that they are responsible for completing. Along the same lines, assigning group roles reduces the likelihood of one individual completing the task for the whole group, or “taking over,” to the detriment of others’ learning.

   • Group roles encourage individual accountability. Group members are more likely to hold each other accountable for not completing work if a particular task is assigned to them.

   • Group roles allow students to strengthen their communicative skills, especially in areas that they lack confidence.

   • Group roles can help disrupt stereotypical and gendered role assignments, which can be common in group learning. For example, Hirshfield and Chachra (2015) found that in first-year engineering courses, female students tended to undertake fewer technical roles and more communicative roles than their male colleagues. By assigning roles during group work, and by asking students to alternate these roles at different points in the semester, students can work past gendered assumptions about themselves and their group mates.

2.  Video Discussions: You can require or merely offer students the option to submit their responses as videos as opposed to written responses. Students in virtual classrooms do a great deal of reading and writing due to the inherent nature of the online modality; however, we can build in options, such as video submissions, to make our courses more engaging and accessible. The advantages can include: 

   • Deepens awareness of participants by allowing for more information per post

   • Teaches technological skills (video recording, audio recording, editing, publishing)

   • Promotes a sense of community in online classes

   • Makes the course more accessible by providing options for the ways students demonstrate learning 

   • Allows more time for those whose first language is not the language of the instruction

   • Promote “deeper thinking” facilitated by the instructor.

3. Prompts that inspire discussion, not essay prompts that ask for essentially the same response from everyone. Don’t be afraid to engage students in controversial conversations! See How to Facilitate Robust Online Discussions and Organic Online Discussions: Saving Time and Increasing Engagement.

4. For lively online debates that take students beyond the post one reply to two model, try Kialo for Educators. 

Ed Tech Quick Guides

• Groups: Creating and Managing

• Discussion: Create Group Topic

• How to Use Video Note