Three-pronged approach to online discussions for learning

In my experience, designing and facilitating online discussions for learning requires a three-pronged approach. The three prongs are: relevance, expectations, and preparation.

Relevance
Students are busy folks…they don’t have time for busywork and resent activities that feel like phluff. An online discussion for learning needs to be relevant and have a clear purpose for students to attend to it in personally, professionally, and/or academically meaningful ways. If the online discussion they are being asked to participate in is seen as irrelevant then they will fail to contribute to the discussion as hoped, and will fail to take anything of value away from the discussion. Even when you have set up a relevant online discussion, you still may not attract the desired level of student participation. Hence the next two prongs…

Expectations
“I asked them to post twice, and [with a disheartened tone] they only posted twice…” I’m not quite sure why we expect students to do more than we ask them to do. Let’s face it, we get what we ask for; if we ask for two posts, that’s what we will get from busy people (especially if the online discussion is seen as irrelevant). The “post x number of times” strategy for encouraging participation simply doesn’t work well for encouraging engaged discussion. In an on-campus course, when was the last time you said, “Class? During today’s discussion of the readings, everyone must contribute one original statement, and comment on one peer’s statement”? Never, because if we did that it would lead to a very strange, unnatural exchange…one that didn’t even resemble the fruitful, organic discussions we want to facilitate.

But, if we don’t specify how many posts we want students to contribute, how we will ensure that discussion happens? If you want a deep discussion, you have to set up the discussion to encourage depth. For example, at the end of a week-long online discussion I may ask students to submit a one-minute paper (note, not really a one-minute paper, but inspired by the concept) that addresses the following —

When students understand the expectations of fruitful discussion (such as submitting a one-minute paper at the end of the discussion) students may be more fully engaged in the conversation, and may work harder to contribute something of value to the discussion. That may take only one post (although unlikely) or 15 posts to the discussion Since they have to ultimately summarize, share, and describe the discussion, they will more than likely fully attend to the discussion…especially if it is relevant and tied to assessment.

Assessment is an important part of expectations. If we expect students to put time and energy into an online discussion, then we not only need to tell students what we want from them we need to make their discussion participation worth points towards final grade. Again, using the one-minute paper example, if you tell students up-front that you require a one-minute paper submitted at the end of each discussion, what the paper must include, and how you will assess it and award points, students are more likely to produce what you am looking for. And, the online discussion activity will more likely lead to something students see as valuable as opposed to busywork.Preparation
What I’ve shared above is all well and good if students know how to participate in an online discussion. Online discussions are dissimilar from face-to-face discussions, so students may need assistance preparing for and participating in online discussions. Setting expectations, as described above, can certainly help. But providing students with guidelines for posting comments (e.g., post early in the discussion to ensure your peers  see your comment, be sure to read everyone else’s post in the thread before responding), examples of fruitful and not-so-fruitful online discussions (with you pointing out what makes them fruitful or not), and models of appropriate online discussion posts (which you can do by being active in the online discussions yourself) can help students develop the skills of online discussion.