Herbert Brown III

Ben,

As long are you provide the students with clear examples of what you expect in the forums, the structure and depth of the forums, and a rubric always helps students understand how and where they earn or lose points. These things can help with the process as well.

Herbert Brown III

Ben Harki

I think designating a certain amount of points (or percentage of grade) to the discussion posts as participation works pretty well to encourage postings. For example, in a math online course you can weight some of the discussion posts so that the students feel less anxiety towards a test or quiz, where you can only have a right or wrong answer. In other words, discussion posts are "easy points" as long as the student makes a meaningful addition to the conversation.

Herbert Brown III

Trang ,

I agree that clear expectations are important. Also providing examples of what a typical discussion would look like can also be helpful. Do you do anything to help "keep the discussion moving?" Oftentimes students respond to the basic question but the true "discussion" doesn't take place as much as it becomes just a "post" answer to a question. What has been your experience?

Herbert Brown III

Trang Nguyen

For student participation in discussion forums, I start the course out with expectations and guidelines clearly written out in the announcement and email. This way students know what is acceptable and what is know and anything with an "I agree" is zero points, unless it is elaborated on.

Sabrina Sanders

Within my original discussion thread, I would create a scenario about the discussion topic and include open-ended questions. In addition, I link students to a particular website related to the topic and scenario so that they can understand the discussion topic. For example, a discussion topic about your strongest multiple intelligences and how you would use your multiple intelligences in class. I linked students to a website to take a multiple intelligence quiz. They would share their results with me and their classmates.

Sabrina Sanders

Herbert Brown III

Janis,

In my opinion, rubrics are crucial in all learning environments. They provide students the detailed feedback they need on their work and provides instructors with fair, equitable tools to evaluate students.

Herbert Brown III

Janis McFaul

I think a clear rubric helps here.
If you communicate through your grading rubric that a robust academic response includes the following - students will probably comply:

- 100 words (the instructor adjusts based on their opinion of the course topic).
- One outside reference (beyond textbook).
- Recapping the reference at the bottom of the posting in APA format (reference does not count unless cited/credited within the write-up.
- Two responses to others.

The above are just examples - what do you think?
Janis

Herbert Brown III

Daron,

It depends on the material you are teaching. I usually give the students open-ended questions in the discussion and give them clear expectations, especially early on. For example, I might need to give them a "sample" of a proper discussion response so they can see the depth and detail of content I expect. If I want them to respond in a meaningful way to at least 2 other postings, I state the expectation in that way (and typically assign grading to follow that expectation). If the problem is "continuing" the discussion, I try to play devils advocate and ask them several probing and conflicting questions in response to their post to get them back to the discussion. If they still post, "I agree" then I would post back something like "explain why you agree with their statement....what about....?" to encourage them to add more. Or state "...that is a good start, but what about....???" To encourage them to write with more depth.

Herbert Brown III