Online Discussions: the Power Tool for Online Teaching

When teaching online, one of my go-to strategies is using asynchronous discussion forums to get students to share their thinking. I know that discussion forums can get a bad rap--from students and instructors alike--but like most tools in the teaching toolbox, how you use the strategy really matters!

You might be surprised then, to hear that I think of discussion forums as a power tool for teaching online, since they don't always get a lot of love. So if you'll indulge me, here are a few thoughts on why online discussions might be a key part of teaching at a distance.

What I like about online discussion forums is that they can provide a shared space for developing ideas. This does not always happen, of course. And it needs to be planned intentionally if we want this to take place! But there are a few real benefits of an online discussion that I think can make it superior to a face-to-face discussion, even though it is definitely different than a face-to-face conversation:

• In asynchronous discussions (meaning not "live, everyone-logged-in-at-the-same-time" discussions, but rather "login when it works for you" discussions") students have time to think about their responses before sharing their ideas. For some students, this thought-time is essential! And I think most of us have been in a discussion in a face-to-face setting where the conversation is dominated by just a few quick-thinking folks who speak up a lot. 
• Asynchronous discussions let me see what all of my students are thinking. In a face-to-face discussion, we might hear from 5 or 6 voices, but it's unlikely that everyone in the group will speak up, unless we put some sort of incentive in place to nudge reticent speakers into sharing.
• Discussions in an asynchronous setting gives more opportunities for students to respond to each other as well. Perhaps this is just in my own teaching practice, but "discussions" in my face-to-face courses actually function more like recitation: I ask a question, as student responds, I comment in response, another student speaks up, etc. It's more like a ping-pong match between me and the whole class, with speech going back and forth between us. In an asynchronous online discussion, students seem more likely to actually respond to each other, rather than just responding to me. (Certainly, this might just be about the way I tend to interact with students in a face-to-face environment, but I wonder how many other instructors might also find this to be true?)

Where to have your online discussion? There are several possibilities:

• If your school has a learning management system (LMS), I can almost guarantee that it has a discussion tool as part of that software platform. I've used many LMSs over the years, and Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, Desire2Learn, Angel, and Sakai at least all have a discussion feature. (Some are certainly easier to use than others!)
• Microsoft Teams and Slack both use channels to have dedicated conversations. Either of these tools could be used to create an online discussion.
• I recently heard from a colleague who uses Discord to host class discussions. While Discord is primarily thought of as a place for gamers to chat, it definitely has the functionality to make this work!
• I know of teachers who have their students create blogs, and they use the commenting feature on the blogs to respond to each other, so this might also be a possibility.

The key I've found in making online discussions work well is hooking students' thinking with an engaging prompt--something that they will really want to talk about. Here are a few strategies I've used to hook their attention, with explanations of why I use that approach:

• "We watched the video about ____ to learn more about this concept. Tell us a story: where have you seen ____ in your own life?" (Have students make a personal connection with key concepts they are learning about!)
• "Before engaging in this discussion, be sure to read chapter 3 in our textbook. In this chapter, there are three things I really disagree with! What do you think they might be?" (Get them engaged in looking deeply at the text, and proposing their ideas!)
• "What was the biggest surprise to you in today's lesson? Why did you find that surprising?" (Normalizing "wonder" as a response to lessons is often an effective strategy...and asking "why did you think so?" questions in response pushes them to justify their thinking.)
• "Who else should read the article we read? How would it benefit them?" (Get them thinking bigger than themselves, and challenge them to carry their learning forward.)
• "Write a ridiculous poem to summarize what you learned from this lesson. A haiku, a limerick, a simple rhyme, and acrostic...choose a format that you like, and share your take aways." (Creating something in response is often a good strategy to give them another chance to think through the main ideas of the lesson...and adding a ridiculous twist sometimes disarms students.)
• "Draw a doodle that illustrates your thinking in response to this lesson. Snap a pic, upload it, and write a brief explanation (~150 words) of your doodle." (Again, a creative response, but one that gets them away from the computer for at least part of their learning activities, which I think is a good thing in an online learning environment.)

Image by Volodymyr Hryshchenko via Unsplash

Do you have great strategies you've used to prompt students to discuss? If so, please share it with us by leaving a comment below!

The biggest critique I have heard from my fellow instructors is that students don't really respond to each other; they don't really discuss things in the so-called "discussion." That is a real concern! And when a student writes a thoughtful articulation of their thinking, and the only response they get from a classmate is "I agree," well, that's just disheartening as an instructor. What to do about this?  In my next post, I'll share more ideas about how I get students to really start interacting in an online discussion.

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(This post is part of a series offering tips on distance teaching. You can read more about this project here: Distance Teaching Tips. You can also read all of the posts in this series here: Distance Teaching Tips Series.)