David,
These are two good recommendations. Thank you for sharing.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
In the online courses I teach I try to abide by at least two guidelines when posting responses to students: 1. I try to always tie subject matter into a personal/professional example while at the same time encouraging students to give examples as well. This helps to share not only facts but allows people to relate subject matter to their own personal life, 2nd. I try to end most of my posts with an additional, related question. This encourages students to continue a discussion thread instead of ending it. Additionally, engaging students using questions in my responses builds up the instructor/student relationship by showing the student that not only am I interested in his/her perspective, but that I had noted his/her background and that I show interest in learning more from their experience. Discussion is truly the meat of an online course as well as an incredible opportunity for students to network with many people from an infinite variety of professional experiences and backgrounds. That is why it’s critical to foster and build discussions; otherwise we are just being paid to monitor a self-taught/paced course.
Rebecca,
I like your incremental approach. Thank you for contributing.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Sunshine,
You have explained well your very sound approach. Thank you for sharing.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Asking incremental questions is the best way to keep students coming back. Since students do tend to post and not return, the teacher can unfold the assignment in stages, letting the students know that they should return at a specific time to check in and respond to the next postings.
Rebecca Smith
I provide structure and expectations and I ask specific, pointed questions for the students to respond to: provocative stuff usually stimulates more discussion.
Gene Parker
My role in asynchronous discussion is to keep the discussion focused and to encourage more dialogue and critical thought.
My first approach to encouraging substantive participation is to go through initial posts to identify areas where students could elaborate on a given area, point them towards sources that might help them develop their understanding or substantiate their analysis more, or challenge to consider or respond to an alternate point of view. By asking them to defend their position, I am asking them to solidify their understanding of the material and perhaps engage in additional research to deepen their knowledge, as well.
I also like to direct students to other peer posts that reflect a different view that challenges their own or that is similar to their own so they can see other ways to present information.
Dr. Pogue,
This is a well-balanced and comprehensive implementation. What kind of success rate do you usually experience using this approach? Thank you for sharing.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
This is a great challenge to the online environment. To help overcome this, I start my courses off by having discussion board standards/expectations in place. I explain to students that their replies need to be substantial. This includes the initial post and student replies. I also give examples of this expectation. The guidelines also explain that student posts need to occur over a variety of days and for a certain number of days. This has helped with getting my students to check in more often throughout the week.
I will have an active role in the discussion board. I reply to each student and use that opportunity to enhance their learning, by expanding on a topic, giving additional information, etc. I will also ask students additional open-ended questions to extend their learning.
In addition to the strategies above, I give students timely, detailed feedback about their participation each week. If students do not meet the requirement, their grade will reflect it and hopefully students will use that information and improve their participation for the future weeks.
Sincerely,
Dr. Pogue
How about making it mandatory for each student to address the subject of the discussion and also respond to the opinions of all the other students participating and make his arguments (agree or disagree)or....to the arguments presented. That way the student would be encouraged to stick with the topic of discussion longer and will most likely develop curiosity and interest for the progress of the discussion.
Frank,
Questions directed to a student using his/her name can be very 'motivating' for students.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
This is also one of the biggest challenges that online instructors face when attempting to engage students in a meaningful discussion. One of the strategies that I employ is to not only post general statements to the discussion board during the week, but to also engage as many students as possible in the discussions. I make sure to call each student by name in my discussion board postings and also try to ask follow-up questions when appropriate. I have found that this tends to increase the discussion participation and engagement on the discussion board.
Frank Nolan
Use students to lead the discussion: Have students generate discussion or review questions. Students can submit one question to you via e-mail or an ANGEL drop box. Select a few questions and post them to your discussion area. You could even have the students who submitted the question be the moderator for that question based on previous weeks discussions. Assign a group to be the experts on a topic or section. Have them post a question for that week's discussion and lead the discussion. Toward the end of the class discussion, have the discussion leaders summarize and combine points for their classmates. Have a student start the discussion on a topic or chapter. Promote interaction by posting a number of questions relating to a chapter or unit of study. Have students work in small groups on these questions. Each group will then post their final results to the discussion list. Use online chat to hold a review session. Have students identify what parts of the assignment are the most confusing to them. For individual assignments, have students review postings from the discussion fourm and outline the points and themes that were discussed. Select a few good examples and post these for the class. Post a model answer to the discussion as a conclusion to your discussion thread.
Shannon,
Very good. Asking questions and confirming the correct points of responses are both great discussion boosters. Thank you.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Bruce,
Your multiple facet approach seems very thorough. I expect it provides some good results for you. Thank you for sharing.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
My role in discussions will be to read all the responses of the students and respond. If I show interest in what the students are writing or responding to they will feel confident and will want to continue in the discussion.
I will encourage students to participate by asking them more questions. The more questions that I ask the more they will have to participate because they will have to answer my questions.
As the facilitator I must ensure that students are aware of the topic(s) to be discussed, well in advance. It is also essential that students are asked open ended question to prevent a simple yes/no answer--many substitute the “yes/no†for one liners..
Additionally, I ask student about their knowledge of the platform we are currently using. In previous occasion, I found that students were posting DB questions to submit assignment. It appears that they did not receive adequate/appropriate training in to access information. This tends to create frustration and difficulty for the student with time and effort wasted.
Moreover, I will remind students that they need to post a minimum number of times in a week but I also stress the importance of continuous interaction--about four or more times per week. Furthermore, (in many instances) when a student posts to the DB (especially the “slackersâ€) I will respond with a follow-up question to the student (addressing him/her by name and the class) for additional information/details. In some situations I will provide a comment and have the student provide an explanation why he/she agree/disagree with the comment.
When replying to a student's initial discussion, I always lead to anther question regarding their post. A number of students do respond and continue the conversation, and in some cases other studenta will reply as well. Keep asking questions, and involve their experience with the topic. Sometimes going off in tangents is enough to spur activity, and I try to herd the discussion back to the primary goals and topic of the discussion.
Dr. Bari Courts
Josh,
Very good "end run" using the email.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Elizabeth,
Very good. It can be helpful. Best regards.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
