Students should be made aware of the topics they will discuss, the order in which they will be discussed, and how long the teacher plans to spend on each topic. This will keep the meeting moving forward, engaging students, and it provides security for the online learner because they know what to expect from their teacher. The online environment comes with many benefits, including learning from your peers in addition to your instructor. Use the time productively to hone lifelong skills and refine your ideas about the course content.

Creating Community And Connection Online

Should they aim to get a sense of how the class reacted to a reading? Or, will students pitch and critique solutions to a problem they’ve explored? If students don’t need to spend too much cognitive bandwidth on figuring out how to participate, the quality, frequency, and enthusiasm of their participation will rise dramatically.

Use Appropriate Tools And Platforms

• Your job as the instructor will be to provide insight into weekly discussions.
• You can do this by modeling good online communication practices, such as using positive and supportive language, acknowledging and building on others’ contributions, and providing feedback and guidance.
• These challenges require a thoughtful approach and the right technology to create an engaging and inclusive discussion environment.
• For each strategy, you’ll find a list of other names it sometimes goes by, a description of its basic structure, and an explanation of variations that exist, if any.

Although WBT is most popular in elementary schools, this featured video shows the creator of WBT, Chris Biffle, using it quite successfully with college students. I have also used Teach-OK with college students, and most of my students said they were happy for a change from the sit-and-listen they were used to in college classrooms. Intentional planning around the pre-work will determine the depth of conversation during an online discussion. Students should be expected to read, research, watch a video, or interact with the content of the discussion prior to beginning an online discussion. The teacher’s expertise on developmental appropriateness and how students learn should be a primary driver when determining what content will best prepare students to be active learners in the online classroom. The fifth step to lead online discussions is to adapt to the online environment, which may pose some challenges and opportunities for communication.

Recruit Help In Managing The Virtual Space

This strategy gives a student a reply post to respond to while taking the pressure off of him /her to do the follow-up since you are asking anyone to comment. Over the years, online instructors have discovered some strategies to set up an engaging discussion or revive a dormant discussion. Following are some strategies from academic pioneers in online learning.

There are many benefits to having online discussions even in a face-to-face (f2f) course. From fully f2f to blended to fully online, the students can expand their learning outside the classroom through interactive dialogue with their peers and the instructor. An online discussion is very similar to a f2f talk in that they require moderation and active management by the instructor, preparation time, and summarization of the concepts covered. In this learning guide an online discussion is defined as communication between instructors and students using interactive communication tools. These tools can take many forms, from chat sessions, to discussion forums, to video chat.

The first batch contains the higher-prep strategies, formats that require teachers to do some planning or gathering of materials ahead of time. Next come the low-prep strategies, which can be used on the fly when you have a few extra minutes or just want your students to get more active. Note that these are not strict categories; it’s certainly possible to simplify or add more meat to any of these structures and still make them work. These are smaller techniques that can be integrated with other instructional strategies and don’t really stand alone.

If students perceive the value they will make them a priority. Summative assessments are typically the last step in the teaching and learning process…. Dr. Annie Prud’homme-Généreux is the director of continuing MatchTruly review studies at Capilano University.