Engaging Students with Online Discussions

An online discussion forum provides a space where participants post messages – typically as text, but possibly including images, audio, and videos, to exchange ideas, engage in conversations, and share experiences and knowledge. The interactivity supports students in collaboratively building meaningful knowledge and critical thinking skills. It is a notion consistent with the social constructivist learning perspective – students construct knowledge through the social process of sharing and negotiating meaning.

While online discussions are used to extend and expand classroom discussions for in-person classes, it often serves as the primary medium for interaction among the instructor and learners in online and hybrid courses. No matter what learning environment it is, building a learning community through online discussions requires effective facilitation strategies.

 

Choosing the Right Tool for Online Discussions

 

There are three discussion tools you can choose to use: Canvas Discussions, Ed Discussion, and Piazza. Canvas Discussions is a native tool in Canvas while Ed Discussion and Piazza are 3rd-party tools integrated with Canvas. We suggest you take a look at the detailed feature comparison Links to an external site. of these tools and choose one that would best meet your instructional needs. We do not recommend using multiple discussion tools in the same class unless there is a compelling need to do so, as your students might be confused about where they should participate.

 

10 Tips for Effective Online Discussions

 

In this blog published on EDUCAUSE Review Links to an external site., Edwige Simon discussed 10 tips that you can use to help ensure that online discussions are engaging and beneficial for your students:

  1. Convey clear expectations (note: the author provided a Discussion Guidelines Document Links to an external site.)
  2. Adjust to the discussion board
  3. Clarify your role
  4. Provide feedback and coaching
  5. Track participation
  6. Offer groups and discussion board alternatives
  7. Create questions you care about
  8. Select discussion leaders
  9. Encourage note-taking
  10. Know when it’s time to stop posting

 

Strategies from GT Faculty on Facilitating Online Discussions

 

In the videos below, three instructors from Georgia Tech, Dr. Mike Evans (Chemistry), Dr. Mark Guzdial (formerly with Interactive Computing, and Dr. Emily Alicea- Munoz (Physics),  discussed what strategies they used to facilitate online discussions. 

 

 

Building a Learning Community in Online Courses

 

In the video below, Dr. David Joyner, Executive Director of the OMSCS program at Georgia Tech, discusses building a learning community in online courses.