Tag discussion

Designing Engaging Online Discussions

Perched seagulls with mouths open as if chatting

Discussion is such a natural tool of engagement in our face-to-face classrooms, but it often feels flat or obligatory online. How can we create engaging online discussions with our students? What tools and practices are available? Join Debbie Mekiana (ANS)…

Discussion Board Course Link

This Blackboard Bitez tutorial  shows you how to create a course link to a discussion forum.  Course links are an easy way to keep all your navigation in one folder, one location. It minimizes confusion and makes your course overall look better.

Pick up Slack

There is no shortage of discussion platforms to choose from if you’re interested in implementing one in your class. Among the available platforms is Slack, a third party communication app that blends elements of chat, discussion board, and social media.

Three ways to manage WordPress contributions

If you’ve ever used WordPress in your class as a space for student contribution, you’ve likely wondered if there is an optimal way to see what is being published and who is making contributions. This information is vital in an online course where post and comment activity often happens asynchronously. In this Teaching Tip, we’ll discuss strategies that allow you to track student engagement and interaction.

Set up a student Q&A discussion board

Setting up a discussion board designed to allow your students to communicate with one another may lower the number of emails you receive. It will empower students to ask each other quick questions, and it might get them talking. Make sure students know it is a resource that becomes more useful with their active use. As students continue to interact they build relationships which benefit them both during the course and after. Read this teaching tip for ideas on how to implement this type of discussion board.

Discussion prompts II

Last week we talked about how designing some tension into discussions can yield a more engaging student experience. This is often my first suggestion when I hear from faculty that student discussions seem lacking. This week the inquiry centers around timing. Just like hosting a dinner party, timing the various course elements is critical when designing student interactions.

Discussion prompts

Designing quality discussion prompts can be a challenge whether building an online discussion forum or trying to better engage the classroom learner. As instructors, we’ve all asked questions of our students that failed to lead them to our verdant garden, blossoming with student ideas. Instead, at one time or another, we’ve led students to deserts of superficial or pat answers that lay shriveled in darkness with only the chirping of crickets as adulation.

Balanced authority in the classroom

When the power goes, what happens at traffic intersections? Without the central authority of the automated traffic lighting system, the drivers are forced to slow down and become more aware of their surroundings and fellow travelers in order to pass safely through the crossroads. Traffic continues because people, largely, organize themselves.