UDL for Faculty-Student Contact: Discussions
As described in this module, class discussions provide instructors with a way to engage students’ interest in the topic, promote a sense of community, and support the development of critical thinking skills and a critical thinking disposition. Discussions in which students need to apply and evaluate the information that they learned, for example, help students to use the information and develop a deeper understanding of the content.
Use the discussion tool in your LMS. Post the discussion prompt and instructions in the Discussion tool.
Host small group (4-7 students) discussions via email: Using your institutional email account, email the discussion prompt and instructions to a small group of students. Students use the REPLY ALL feature to respond to discussion prompts and their peers. Ask students to sign their posts with their full name so that their peers (and you) can easily identify who said what. The LMS clearly identifies students, but email addresses may not do so.
Text: Using an app like GroupMe to protect everyone’s privacy, text the discussion prompt and instructions to a small group of students. Students reply to share a photo of their typed or written discussion response and their responses to their peers. Ask students to sign their posts with their full name so that their peers (and you) can easily identify who said what. The LMS clearly identifies students, but an app like GroupMe may not do so.
If you want students to create their first post before they respond to each other, students can be instructed to email or text you their initial posts by a specific date. You can then collate their responses and send them to the students in the group and ask them to REPLY ALL with their responses.
Remember, you can provide feedback to students regarding their discussion posts via individual emails or texts, but you cannot email them their grades. See important guidelines here.