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…
My basecamp for professional endeavors