One of the most difficult aspects of teaching online classes is generating effective class discussion. Because of the nature of college-level online courses, discussion must be used to help students understand the class’s major concepts and apply these concepts in major assignments. Most online-class programs, like WebCT or Blackboard, have a discussion board tool designed especially for this. Here are a few tips to help you assign effective discussion posts when teaching online classes.
Instructions
1. It is highly important to understand the types of students that take online classes. Typically students in online classes are non-traditional, meaning that they work full time, have families and other obligations. Other types of students may include high school students getting a jump-start on their college work, those trying to get in as many classes as possible to graduate early and even those on active military duty. Whatever the student’s situation, he or she most likely has a very busy and full life. When you understand your students, you will understand the importance of assigning useful discussion that will help them in the long run, rather than just “busy work.”
2. Similarly, it is vital that you understand the nature of online courses. Since you never see the students, the “discussion” that is generated in class is written rather than spoken. This can be difficult for some students if writing doesn’t come naturally to them. While you may intend for discussion to be informal, students may see it as a large written assignment.
3. Consider the reason for assigning discussion in an online class. You want to make sure that important material is well understood so that it can be applied to larger assignments such as projects, tests or essays. This is very important when coming up with discussion assignments.
4. It is a good idea to assign discussion that can help students get started on one of the class’s larger assignments and get feedback early in the process. For example, in a college level English course where writing essays about works of literature is the focus, have students post their actual thesis statement for an upcoming essay and one of their actual body paragraphs. If a major research paper or project is assigned in your class, use discussion to help students stay on track by staggering discussion posts throughout the semester, with each asking for only simple information. For example, one week students could post their topics, and then follow that with a thesis statement, a list of sources, a methodology or anything else that might help them along the way.
5. Keep discussion assignments short. It is better for students to put most of their focus and hard work into a major project, so it can be overwhelming for them to also have to write lengthy discussion posts.
6. “Busy work” discussion posts can seem boring and pointless to both students and instructors. This refers to discussion just for the sake of discussion. Students tend to appreciate it when their work has meaning and is something that they can build on. And, remember, you have to read the discussion, so you want it to be interesting and have point!
7. Assign grades for discussion. Many students will not participate in discussion if they don’t have to. So, grading discussion will motivate students to not only participate, but also to do a good job.
8. Give feedback on discussion, especially if you intend to grade it and if it is a beginning stage for a larger assignment. If you link discussion topics to a major assignment, you can help students identify problems along the way. For example, if you ask students to post a thesis statement for an essay and some are not up to par, have students continue to post revised thesis statements. This will help them see their mistakes and know fix them – but you have to guide them.
9. Discussion can have a great impact on the entire class. Students can read each other’s discussion, so this will help them get ideas and stay on track with assignments. It will also help to reinforce the understanding of a subject.
10. Time is an important factor for everyone: students and instructors. Keep in mind that whatever discussion you assign in your class, you will have to read and most likely grade. So make it easy on yourself: keep discussion assignments short, simple and focused.
Tags: help students, help them, online classes, discussion assignments, discussion posts