Discussion Design
Discussion Component
Discussions are a key component of online courses. They help build community, encourage reflection, reinforce respectful communication, and develop critical thinking skills. In order to realize their potential, discussions must be intentionally and carefully designed, configured, and facilitated. (See separate page on Discussion Facilitation.)
Discussion Design
Carefully craft prompts and set requirements. An online discussion is not simply a question thrown out to students. It must be crafted and configured for a specific outcome, keeping in mind its context in the course and the module. A poorly designed discussion may become a facilitation nightmare.
Write open-ended, thought-provoking prompts that set expectations clearly for students, thus minimizing the chances their responses drift into unintended and undesirable directions that necessitate clarifying announcements later.
If a discussion requires extensive background or context, including readings or other content, put this on a separate, preceding page, so the prompt itself (what you want students to do) doesn’t get lost.
Include a word limit to keep the discussion from becoming a waterfall of text, too imposing for some students to read through (especially in classwide discussions).
Ask students to return to the discussion within a day or two and reply to one or two other posts, particularly ones that don’t already have replies.
Establish discussion guidelines early (in orientation material) and include examples of posts and replies that model collaborative learning and respectful dialogue. (See Discussion Guidelines for Students, below, for requirements.)
Include grading rubrics (see below) to break down expectations for students and make grading more straightforward (or standardized if more than one person is grading). Include significant value for on-time submission to motivate students to keep up with fast-paced courses.
Explore options to prevent discussions from becoming formulaic and tedious for students. For example, assign specific roles to play (which might require splitting the class up into smaller groups of five or so using Groups in Canvas).
Design for the ideal discussion size. If your enrollment is high, consider using sections or group discussions to make the conversation more intimate and reading all posts more manageable (and likely) for students.
Balance workload. Provide students with options that allow them flexibility to manage a workload that is almost certainly more than they expected while also allowing them to follow their interests.
Allow students to drop one discussion in a series or more in the course overall.
Break complex topics down into separate discussions, thus allowing for greater focus and letting students choose which ones to engage in (e.g., one of two or two of three).
Alternate discussions with other assignments in modules to head off back-to-back discussion fatigue and offer a reprise from their tight post-and-reply cycle.
Vary reply requirements
Instead of having students write replies to other student posts for every discussion, have them vote up, or “like,” other student posts. If you sort posts by likes, then you could explore the top one or two posts further in a subsequent discussion or assignment based on student appeal.
Have students use the “like” feature to award karma-like points, or inspiration points, to posts that they found most helpful to their learning and feed these into a bonus points scheme tallied at the end of the course. (You can define inspiration in other ways.)
TIP: See the Creating Discussions page in the Working in Canvas section to understand discussion mechanics and configuration options.
References
Dunlap, J. Down-and-dirty Guidelines for Effective Discussions in Online Courses. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/3014998/Down-and-dirty_Guidelines_for_Effective_Discussions_in_Online_Courses
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