Course discussions
These are helpful to students in that they allow one to enter information at their leisure.
Kelly:
Agreed. The facility to share information in an asynchronous discussion with the flexibility of time within theconfines fo the duration of the discussion forum is one of the benefits of asynchronous discussions. Please advise on other benefits of employing asynchronous discussions in a course.
Satrohan
One key to a successful asynchronous discussion is the ability of the Instructor to ask open ended questions to facilitate the direction of the conversation and stimulate insightful comments from the students. I’ve noticed that some students will respond to just about every question or topic you post while others need a little encouragement. I do this by responding to one of their post with a specific question based on their response and I always start with their name.
Do you have a requirement in your syllabi for class participation as part of the grade for on line courses?
Mark:
You are quite right about open-ended questions. They generate longer Discussion threads. On top of that, your monitoring of the students' responses and generating asking Questions based on the course the Discussion is taking will definitely result in increased participation.
Satrohan
Jeffrey:
Most of the institutions with whom I have worked have dedicated two sections of a Syllabus to grading------one for the percentage equivalent of the Letter Grade; the other for percentage distribution for other assessment measures such as graded assignments and quizzes. Included in this percentage distribution is the percentage of the final grade participation in Discussion Forums constitute.
Satrohan
Group discussion is good because everyone who is participating in the discussion is adding something that perhaps someone in the group does not know about. So it can be very informative for everyone involved.
Adarine:
This is one of the strong-points of asynchronous discussions. Students have adequate time to compose intelligent responses to the topic. They have adequate time to assimilate the responses of other students and compose constructive responses. Diligent participation not only leads to the sharing of knowledge; it also leads to the development of new ideas about the topic; hence, the term "discussion thread" or "threaded discussion".
Satrohan
This is an area that is essential to e-learning as it is very important for interaction and sharing of thoughts.
Mark, great suggestion! I like to answer individual posts with, "(name of student) and All," - this engages everybody.
We have course discussions weekly and all instructors are active in the weekly discussion forums as well.
I try to post at least two responses daily by responding to various students within a course.
I also post course informational items and use the discussion area for posting useful items as well. I post items in various places including Announcements, Discussions, and also e-mail to insure that each student will be able to find what they are looking for.
Kim
Kim,
Great examples of how to use forums.
Thanks,
Jon
The online courses that I have participated in had certain requirements for discussions ie: 2 posts per day. I think that requirements are necessary to encourage participation.
Bonnie,
I agree - unless there are at least some graded discussions, students may not start participating.
Best,
Jon
Jon,
A successful online course must have a discussion space for learners to talk openly about the course.However, interaction between students and instructors is still not sufficient to alleviate the isolation and often frustations among students experience. Therefore, it can be serious detriment to learning in many cases.
Gloria,
Not just any discussion, but interaction the same as you would have in a classroom. If you are teaching a math class, you may want to have a discussion thread on "what was your biggest confusion this week" or something like this.
Shelly Crider
