Discussion Board Management

Introduction

While individual instructors have their own equally individual teaching styles when facilitating the class discussion boards, Jo Macek, contributor to eLearn Magazine outlines some suggestions that have worked well for her during her online teaching career.

Ground the Learning in Real Experiences

When the instructor and all the learners are working solely within the confines of an online classroom, it is even more important to bridge the gap that can appear between them by connecting the discussion board activities to the “real” world in which the students live. Case studies are a good option in this case but including more timely current events can also inspire discussion and give students food for thought as well.

As always, when bringing in outside material to our classrooms, it is very important to keep Kaplan’s for-profit status in mind as we have to adhere to strict copyright and acceptable use regulations. A safe way to incorporate links into your classroom is to add them to the webliography or the information pod in seminar as you take your students on a virtual field trip.

Motivate Through Discussion

The start of each new term brings excitement and an enthusiasm for learning, and posting, for most students. However, as the term wears on interest can wane if instructors do not motivate their students to remain active participants in this area of the course.

Keep your students motivated to keep reading, researching, and posting throughout the class by remaining motivated yourself from the very start of the term until the very last day, posing questions to encourage students to think in a critical manner, saving some of your good teaching material for the middle or end of the term to recapture your students’ attention, and drawing on your students’ have posted in the introduction discussion board thread of your classroom to spur on the conversation. If your course does not have an introduction discussion board thread feel, free to email your students and ask them to share a bit about their personal/professional lives.

Use the Discussion Board to Minimize Information Overload

Large chunks of information should be divided into shorter segments and can be delivered or posted throughout the week. Paragraphs should be one to three lines, with a blank line between paragraphs. Use capitals for headings. Use at least a 12-point font.

Use color and italics sparingly. Overuse of emphasis dilutes the attention you're trying to draw. Also be aware that certain colors may be challenging to read on screen.

Use the Book, But Don't Teach the Book

Illustrate theories with information from the textbook, citing pages and such, but provide additional insight and examples with your discussion board postings. A textbook is a framework for accumulating knowledge, not the font of all truth. Students should be able to question the information found within their texts as they make their posts.

Don't Always Reply

Do not feel the need to reply to every single post on the class discussion boards. If the purpose of using technology is to share information and guide students to learning, you should only be posting when you can provide substantial information. You already know that students will comment on each other's posts. If you post a comment to each of these, you'll be doing most of the "talking." Let the students share information, but be there to guide them.

If the students are required to post an introduction in the first week of class, you should reply to each individually within 24 hours to show that you are 1) present, 2) involved, 3) interested in the students' success in the class.

Expect Tangents

Tangential discussions will happen. The question is how to deal with them. Are off-topic discussions interruptions or teachable moments? If the discussion is beneficial to the class and new knowledge is shared, then you might want to continue the thread, or begin a new one. Sometimes students start a discussion that will be covered later in the class. Ask them to keep notes of their ideas and questions and post them later. If the discussion is not worthwhile, rein the students in and divert them back to the topic.

Ask Good Questions

What makes for a good discussion question? Some of the best questions for online discussion boards are ones that make the student research and support their answers, rather than "show knowledge" questions.

Ask about "factors that contributed to..." or "what if..." Ask for supporting documentation, not just "support your answer" (students tend to think their opinions and personal examples will suffice).

Pre-write

Write discussion questions or substantive replies to students ahead of time. Some instructors have pre-set discussion questions. That's fine, but do not rely on these too heavily as you will want to add “fresh” comments to each discussion board so that your posts do not appear stale or outdated to your students. Research and write a substantive post that goes along with the topic of discussion for the week. This could be a scenario, a fictional case study, interesting tidbit of information, or clarifying and elaborating information from the textbook or classroom reading material.