Online discussions and rubrics

Microsoft clip art

  One way to establish community in an online class is to require challenging discussion questions. These questions should test whether the students have read the material, but also if possible allow them to apply to their own life. It is not always easy to develop good discussion questions.  

There is a big discussion in online teaching as to whether the discussions should be set up so that most students get full credit, or if the discussions should require research.  If you do require research it is a good idea to ask the students in their initial post to cite references.  Creating good discussion questions is an art, but you do get better as you teach. I am still learning. 

Rubrics are important in grading any work, but are especially helpful to you and the students for group work grading. I like rubrics that go from high to low. I also like rubrics that are not too complicated – no more than 5 categories. In advanced classes I grade using the rubric, and give my grade with the rubric to the student. It looks like this:

Rubric category 1 ( I copy it from the rubric)

·         Points

·         My comments in red

Rubric category 2 (Copied from the rubric)

·         Points

·         My comments in red

That takes a lot of time, but students do see why they got the grade they did