Facilitating Online Discussion

Mary B. Wall

Facilitating discussions in online classes is a balancing act. I teach faculty how to improve their online courses, and a question that always arises is: “How do I guide online discussions?” We want to make sure that students are going on the right path and really learn something from each other, but we also do not want to overwhelm the discussion.

I do feel that teachers need to “be present” in online classes. The biggest complaint from online students is that the teacher is not there. Even if the teacher may be reading all posts in the discussion, when they do not participate, or at least give personalized feedback, then students often feel off in cyberspace alone.  Also discussions can meander and be merely a repetition of the first message. However, being active and monitoring facilitations does take time.  A framework is helpful so that we can scaffold our responses. 

Faculty need to keep students on track but allow for enough student expression so that the topic develops and students learn from each other.  How can teachers push their students to think deeper on the subject and to make the discussions a learning experience?

Develop good questions

The first step is to develop good discussion questions. Questions with one right answer, or questions whose answers can be found in the text, might be better suited for a quiz or an assignment. Questions that require analysis, connection to personal experiences, or delving deeper may produce the most learning and interaction among the students.  For example, in a discussion on the use of portfolios in higher education, students could be asked to apply the readings, be presented with mini case studies, or discuss the pros and cons. Examples below are taken from an actual facilitation on portfolios. The facilitator has given me permission to use her work.

Questions Asking for Application of the Readings:

How can interactivity be incorporated into the basic e-portfolio processes of reflection, finalization of projects, incorporation of projects into an e-portfolio, to enable the possibility of engaging student-faculty, student-student, or perhaps student-colleague (in the adult) learning opportunities?

Questions that are Mini Case Studies:

You have volunteered to draft instructions for the reflection component of the e-portfolio for your department. Your task is to explain to your students or other portfolio builders why they are composing reflection statements for each of their portfolio artifacts, to provide concise instructions for the reflection assignment, and to provide a brief rationale for your approach.

Discussing Pros and Cons:

Allowing students to select the content of the portfolio is considered to be very motivating because it connects students to their e-portfolio and allows them an opportunity to construct their own learning. On the other hand, some portfolios are used for assessment purposes with students demonstrating competency by including required portfolio projects, or artifacts. Discuss the pros and cons of the two approaches to e-portfolio content. Include ways that the portfolio process can be designed to encourage students to be motivated and connected to their e-portfolios, that is to say, how can it be made to be “theirs,” even though the projects may be defined?

Give Clear Guidelines of What is Expected

Once the questions are formed, then the discussion can progress. A rubric that is clear and easy to understand helps the process. Faculty should be sure the students know what we expect of them. 

A simple statement like: “No credit for posts like I agree or Good job will be counted for credit” can give students warning that we want analysis, not parroting the previous posts, and often it is helpful to give students examples of good and poor replies. 

We must decide if we want students to reply to others. If we do that should be clearly stated in the instructions, along with how many replies we expect. Should spelling and grammar count? Will we require all references to be correctly sited?

Rubrics should not be too involved. The more complicated the rubric the more difficult and time consuming it will be for the faculty to grade.

A sample rubric for a discussion that is worth 8 points:

2 points	1 point	0 points
Initial postings are well-developed (at least one full paragraph), use correct spelling and grammar and introduce new ideas. Clear evidence of critical thinking; (application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation	Some development of ideas, but spelling and grammar may be a problem or little evidence of critical thinking.	Brief responses, or no evidence of critical thinking or spelling and grammar a major problem
Response postings are characterized by clarity of argument, depth of insight into theoretical issues, originality of treatment and correct spelling and grammar.	Response postings have some depth, originality or insight.	Response posts are lacking in depth, originality or insight.
All postings are on time.	Postings are one day late.	Postings are more than one day late
Participants replied to at least two other participants posts. Response to initial posts are collegial but do not count for points.	Participants replied to one other participant posts. Response to initial posts are collegial but do not count for points.	No response to others.

Monitoring the Discussion

Once the facilitation beings, then faculty must decide how much to participate. For example, a class I teach requires that faculty design and monitor a facilitation.  The faculty are required to be present and guide the discussion. As a help to guide them, I suggest that before their facilitation they should review a summary of the text “Facilitating Online Learning: Effective Strategies for Moderators” George Collison, Bonnie Elbaum, Sarah Haavind, Robert Tinker (Atwood Publishing 2000)  Summarized by Lisa M. Lane, 2007. http://hub.miracosta.edu/teaching-academy/online/roundtables/collison.pdf The book is a worthwhile purchase, and the outline can be used as quick guide. The authors suggest that using various Tones, Voices and Critical Thinking Guides can direct discussions.  

In the same discussion on portfolios noted above, the facilitator used the material in this text to guide her facilitation. Notice that the facilitator always personalizes by using the student’s name. It’s a small thing, but it makes a difference

Tones , Voices and Critical Thinking, a few examples:.

Tones (Manner of Expression – Encouraging but Probing) :

·        Asking for clarification: “Do you have any ideas about what direction you would go with those, John?”

·        Nurturing: “Hi Sam--I can relate to that feeling of discomfort with technology solutions--we recently started using videoconferencing using Google +, and although it is great when it works, but sometimes we spend 15-30 minutes getting set up. Huge time commitment.”

Voices (Seeking Clarification) :

·        Conceptual facilitator: “Hi Cindy: It sounds like you really got a lot out of the reflection process. Did that come naturally to you?”

·        Personal Muse:  (Letting students get inside your head):  “Susan, I like your thoughts about how to get students oriented and comfortable with the reflection process--backing up and asking questions that lead the student into it sounds like a great approach. I always find myself stopping as I read a reflection from a student who is struggling to get beyond "Description" in their reflections.”

Critical Thinking (Encourage the Poster to Dig Deeper):

·        Sharpening Focus: Glenn, You mentioned social media and how comfortable your son is with it. I find the same with my "grown" kids. It is a part of their everyday lives to connect via twitter and facebook, etc (Pinterest and more). For me, those are "extras" that I just never seem to get to, although I do have a Linked-In account. Do those of us from a time before social media need to get with it? Or can we just leave that for the younger folks?!

·        Digging Deeper: Thanks, Stuart --by overdoing it, do you mean that we may sometimes ask students for too much, but that in this case, the miscellaneous is a good "extra"?

Notice that in each of the examples, the facilitator did not just accept the student’s message and reply something like “Nice work” or “Well done.” Those comments, while encouraging, do not guide the learning process.

Usually, after an initial comment like those above, the discussion will get back on track and proceed. The facilitator may have to reply initially to each student’s post, especially at the beginning of the class.  However, as the class continues, students soon learn from this guidance what is expected and the facilitator’s need for intervention decreases.

Time Saving Tips

Yes, monitoring an online discussion takes a lot of time to do well. Faculty have developed ways to lighten the load;

1.     Using Voice to Text Software. Most faculty can speak faster than they can type. Using Voice to Text Software enables the faculty to speak and have their words turned into text. I use Dragon Naturally Speaking software http://shop.nuance.comhttp://shop.nuance.com, but there are others.

2.     Macros. If there are comments that must be consistently added then it may be worth the time to develop a macro. For example, if faculty need to give feedback on “This work is late” then developing a macro key shortcut may reduce the need to write the same comment over and over. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/record-or-run-a-macro-HA010099769.aspxhttp://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/record-or-run-a-macro-HA010099769.aspx

3.     Copy and Paste. I give a summary of the discussion each week after the work is graded. I make sure to highlight the main points because I know that, especially if the class is large, students will not read every post. I save these summaries, and review them each time I teach the course. Then I can quickly make revisions and copy and paste into the class.

4.     Verbal feedback. Some teachers do give verbal feedback instead of written. Many students do like this, but by ADA legislation we need to have a text equivalent for verbal or written information in our courses.

Guiding the Discussion is Worth It!

In student evaluations I often find the comment that the online discussions were the best part of the class. It does take a lot of faculty time but asking good questions, making expectations clear, and guiding the discussions by using tones, voices and critical thinking prompts pays off for the faculty and the student.