Discussion participation level…
Once I make a commitment to facilitate online course, I am committed to 7-day course presence. I am an early person so my interaction is usually in the morning—I make sure to tell students. One way I interact with students is through the discussion threads. I usually take the initiative to start contributing to the discussions on Sundays (lessons starts on Mondays). I do not respond to each post students make, but rather every other post along with posting questions related course subject matter being discussed that week.
Would be interested to know your approach to course discussions; what is your level of contribution.
Janelle,
Every day seems to be overkill. But, when your classes are only 5 weeks, that's different than an 8 or 16 week course. Thanks for sharing.
Hello Rolando,
I'm required to have presence in the course every day as well. I'm not required to post to the Discussion Board every day, but I need to check email daily and respond to any questions students may have. I have learned over the years that discussions often become more productive when I post in the Discussion Board as early in the week as possible. This helps to set the precedent for my students and they tend to follow suit. I also try to make sure that I respond to each student at least two times throughout the session (our classes are five weeks) in addition to posting general questions to the entire class.
This is a great question as I often wonder how other instructors balance the Discussion Board requirement.
Janelle Marshall
Lauren,
Right on. The earlier the better to get them all engaged. I use a rubric zthat notes they have to conversation and not simply restate what someone else has done. That works for me.
I also try to get into the discussion early. However, sometimes this can be risky in my situation. I have had classes where if I got in the discussion early they would answer my questions, but then once I went back and started giving feedback and continuing the discussion others would reword my responses. Any suggestions on how to prevent this?
Ngozi-ka,
It is good that you acknowledge students' posts. You can divide the students into groups and assign a group leader to do that as well. That save you some time and puts responsibility on the students.
With me,I can tell my participation levels differs based on the topic. Most times my students and I will posts multiple posts on controversial topics such as air quality, living wills, medications errors. Everyone wants to be heard, so I try to make a point to acknowledge each posts to make them feel like their comment was important enough to reply.
Alan,
The random pattern you talk about is a good idea. Thanks for bringing this up so that others can think about this strategy.
I am online everyday, even though it is not a school requirement. I feel it is good to be current. I too am an early person and respond to emails within a 24 hour period each morning. I read through discussions and highlight some on a random pattern. I make sure I have a certain number of posts to the discussion board each week.
Frank,
Facilitation is the key. It's good that you have set guidelines to help you do that and helpt the student reach the learning outcomes. Nice job.
Typically when I facilitate an online course I also make a commitment to participate every day in the course. This involves several forms of communication with the students inclusing answering email messages, participating in online discussion boards, providing assignment feedback, posting announcements on the classroom, etc. I do not think that every instructor for every course should be required to participate 7 days per week, but I have found that I can be more effective as an instructor if I have a presence in the online classroom on every day.
Frank Nolan
Rolando,
The key is that you let your students know when you will be communicating. Keep up the good work.
