Tips for Dynamic

Online Discussions
Here are three approaches to creating dynamic
discussions in the online classroom.
Communicate Guidelines Practice Effective Leverage Resources
Pedagogy
ASU Online courses utilize How do we avoid launching When moderating
Quality Matters course discussions that fall flat? discussions, you have
design and review many tools at your
standards to establish By driving activity through disposal, starting with the
guidelines for forum open- ended questions that discussion forum itself.
interaction. encourage critical thinking
and solicit multiple Knowing the technical
In keeping with these perspectives. features and functions
standards, ASU Online including how and where to
courses contain elements You can actively moderate access technical support
that direct and encourage discussion with facilitation enables your success.
student learning within best practices like grouping
discussions. students, playing Also, consider including
(Sun)Devil’s Advocate, and video discussion prompts.
For example, course modeling a professional The ASU Online New
features such as the message and tone. Media Studio offers flexible,
Community Forum, faculty recording services.
Resources, and Technical
Support serve to advance
student community,
encourage student-to-
student and student-to-
instructor engagement, and
provide assistance when
needed.
Communicate Guidelines
Provide instructions and guidelines for posting
Let students know whether they will have the ability to modify or delete their messages.
You will also want to notify them about other pertinent discussion settings such as
whether they must post before seeing the replies of other students.

Require an initial response to each discussion question, plus a certain number of

subsequent responses.

Share the following guidelines for posting: “Quantity: make your contribution as
informative as is required, but not more, or less, than is required. Quality: do not say
that which you believe to be false or for which you lack evidence. Relation: be relevant.
Manner: avoid ambiguity and obscurity; be clear, brief and orderly” (Meskill, 2013).

Use the Community Forum

Encourage students to use the
Community Forum found in Module
0. It’s like having a quick informal
chat for general course questions.

Create community in the course

early on; ask students to share
information about themselves, even
if it seems trivial, in order to
connect with one another rather
than just with the instructor (Young
& Bruce, 2011).

Create an Introductions forum

Ask students to post specific information about themselves in their introductions, like
their learning goals, reasons for taking the course, and an “icebreaker” of some sort
(favorite food, books, movies, etc.).

As a good place for students to practice using the discussion board, they build
community while interacting in the Introductions forum (Young & Bruce, 2011). It also
gives students practice in using the discussion board tool. If a student makes mistakes,
contact him or her individually to avoid embarrassment in front of the class.

“The more shared knowledge students have about each other, the more sharing of
social cues, the more motivated they’ll be to participate in online discussion....” (Murray,
2000)
Manage the quality of forum activity
Encourage or require substantive responses among students in which they connect with
other students (Howell, 2015; Major, 2015). With positive interdependence in play,
“...students start providing more feedback when they shift from waiting for instructor
guidance to instead guiding one another. To overcome lulls in online conversation,
students need to tie their comments to others’ comments, much as they do in face-to-
face class discussions....” (Murray, 2000).

Communicate “netiquette” requirements (Howard, 2015). You might describe your

requirements in a video you use to introduce yourself to the class, in one of your first
forum posts, in your syllabus, or in all three.

Set expectations for active learning and make discussions relevant

Explain to students “why and how discussion will help them construct knowledge they
can find and apply when needed. If we elaborate our learning by thinking about its
relationship to other things we know or by talking about—explaining, summarizing, or
questioning—we are more likely to remember it when we need to use it
later.” (McKeachie, 1999, p. 45)

“...students learn in a meaningful way when they are encouraged to actively and
deliberately explore the links between education, prior knowledge, and personal
experience, and respond accordingly.” (Bender, 2003, p. 62; Major, 2015)

Sprinkle additional resource links in discussion forums to encourage further depth in

exploration of the subject matter and increase knowledge.

Provide a Technical Support section

Direct students to Canvas support services via the Help section of the Global Navigation
Menu. This option provides opportunities for chat, email, and other forms of help such
as student or instructor guides.

Create an emergency communication plan

At the beginning of the semester let students know how course communication will be
handled in case of an emergency (e.g. if courses or portals are unavailable for an
extended period of time). Typically, email is used as a backup communication method.
Twitter and other applications can be used as alternate channels as well.
Practice Effective Pedagogy
Match discussions to course content
Make class discussions meaningful and focused by matching them closely to the course
content and schedule (Howard, 2015).

Organize forums and threads to reflect the class chronology or sequence (Ko & Rossen,
2017).

Use descriptive forum headings

Use headings such as “Discussion: Applying ethics in health care” as opposed to
“Discussion 1.” This way, students can quickly identify the topic of the discussion.

Model clear, concise, and professional messages

Students seek to emulate messages posted by the instructor. Post messages that
model the level of formality and length you expect. “Through their participation
instructors can model behavior that builds safe and welcoming community for student
participation by demonstrating how to initiate discussion of a topic, acceptance of a
variety of perspectives, affirmation of others’ contributions, and invitations for continued
input, particularly to flesh out unarticulated assumptions” (as stated by Shackelford &
Maxwell, 2012 in Howard, 2015, p. 133).
Group students using a clear method or purpose
Organize student groups alphabetically by last name, topic, debate point
of view, teaching assistant, or by another distinct criterion. Create
forums that challenge groups to discuss or debate different sides of the issue.

Engage students by offering student-led and student-summarized group discussions.

Rotate leaders each week (Major, 2015).

Write questions that perpetuate discussions

Open-ended questions that allow students to provide varied, distinct responses will
perpetuate discussion much more than close-ended questions that result in a “yes” or
“no” answer. Socratic questioning—answering a question with a question and
encouraging students to connect thoughts—will push dialogue to become constructive
and critical. “For example, a question at the level of analysis asks students to identify an
important idea or concept in the reading. A follow-up reflection question asks students to
explain why that concept or idea is important. Then students can be required to apply
the concept or idea to their own experience or simply to a different context. Finally,
students are encouraged to identify questions raised by the concept or idea that
remains unresolved” (Howard, 2015, p. 135).

Moderate by guiding
discussions
Interact frequently. To stay
motivated, some students need
to see that the instructor is
monitoring the discussions and
interacting just as he or she
would in a “live” classroom.
“Respond to key discussion
posts from learners and weave
themes or point out areas
where learners are not on
target” (Stavredes, 2011, p.
189).

Include the full class in your replies. When appropriate, address your forum replies to
the full class (“Bob points out that...”). “...interact with different learners in different
discussions, and [aim to] interact with every learner at least once [throughout the
course]” (Stavredes, 2011, p. 189).

Play the Devil’s Advocate: role play! Assign or have students volunteer for roles
“...eternal optimist, pessimist, devil’s advocate, trouble-shooter or discussion moderator.
When taking on roles, students feel freer to express themselves, disagree with one
another, and debate....” (Murray, 2000).
“Draw upon elements that are already in the dialogue to light the way forward.” Identify
“comments or phrases, already posted in the dialogue, that can serve as bridges to the
next level of understanding for the group” (Collison, Elbaum, Haavind, & Tinker, 2000, p.
38).

Summarize main points of the discussion each week. A summary can provide closure to
the unit and segue to the next discussion. Collect relevant comments from students and
create summaries that relate to the unit’s objectives. This process can enable new
topics to emerge and provide guidance for off-task
responses (Howard, 2015).

Use a rubric to communicate discussion expectations, at least, and at most, to assign

points. Allocate points for interaction within the rubric as a way of increasing student-to-
student interaction. Also consider asking students to use a rubric to grade their own
discussions posts. “This approach forces students to reflect upon their own
contributions” (Howard, 2015, p. 128).
Leverage Your Resources
Know the discussion board tool
Knowing the functionality of the discussion board tool helps you focus on the content
rather than the tool, and allows you to answer student questions.

Include additional facilitators when possible

“It may be useful to have more than one facilitator in an online community. This way,
participants receive encouragement from multiple sources, and the burden of
responding to many posts doesn’t fall on one person” (Collison, Elbaum, Haavind, &
Tinker, 2000, p. 83).

Use expert videos

Find videos of
experts in the
discipline and include
these in the
discussion.*

Use desktop video

recording tools, such
as Zoom, Skype, or
Snagit, to record
guest experts.
Recording lets you
share the interview in
your current and
future classes.

* Take advantage of ASU Online’s New Media Studio to record discussion prompts,
lectures, guest interviews, and weekly summaries.

Optimize how you view posts

Use the “Expand replies” and “Collapse replies” icons at the bottom of each forum to
effectively navigate discussions. Once collapsed, posts may be expanded or collapsed
one at a time for easier viewing.

Click on a particular student’s name in the Grade Center to see his or her individual
contributions.
 References

Bender, T. (2003). Discussion-Based Online Teaching to Enhance Student Learning:

Theory, Practice and Assessment. Sterling. VA: Stylus Publishing.

Collison, G., Elbaum, B., Haavind, S., & Tinker, R. (2000). Facilitating Online Learning:
Effective Strategies for Moderators. Madison, WI: Atwood Publishing.

Hampel, R., and Stickler, U. (2015). Developing Online Language Teaching. Palgrave
Macmillan. Retrieved 7 July 2015, from http://
[Link]?ID=760634

Howard, J. (2015). Discussion in the college classroom: Getting your students engaged
and participating in person and online. San Fransisco, CA: Jossey Bass.

Ko, S., & Rossen, S. (2017). Teaching online: A practical guide (4th ed.). New York:
Routledge.

Major, C. (2015). Teaching online. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

McKeachie, W. J. (1999). McKeachie’s Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and

Theory for College and University Teachers. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin
Company.

Meskill, C. (2013). Online Teaching and Learning. Bloomsbury Academic.

Retrieved 7 July 2015, from http:// [Link]?
ID=603816

Murray, B. (2000). Reinventing class discussion online. Monitor on Psychology, 31,

54-56. Retrieved September 18, 2002, from [Link]
[Link].

Stavredes, T. (2011). Effective Online Teaching. Jossey-Bass. Retrieved 7 July 2015,

from [Link]

Young, S., & Bruce, M.A. (2011). Classroom community and student engagement in
online courses. Journal for Online Learning and Teaching, 7(2), 219-230.