They are considered the beating heart of nearly every online course: the threaded discussion, where students post weekly to topics related to the course subject. Here is one of the true benefits to online learning, for students are “locked” into a cyber room where each week they share thoughts, ideas, information, and suggestions with other students. These threaded discussions take students into a richer learning experience, for they further mine the course subject and its readings through conversations with their peers. And their instructor.
It is the instructor upon whom the success or failure of the threaded discussion rides, and to effectively manage a threaded discussion is an art, to be sure. What is offered in this column is a comprehensive listing of suggestions to enhance the online instructor’s facilitation of the online threaded discussion. While it is thorough it can never be the last word, for many who teach online have additional approaches, strategies, and suggestions in improving one’s efforts at having successful, quality discussions, week after week. I invite you to send these on to me at erroldistancelearning@gmail.com—I will include these in a future column. But for now, I think you’ll find these most helpful (and always adopt suggestions based on the umbrella of what your school’s policies will or will not allow):
Be sure your students are fully aware of all discussion expectations. Posting all threaded discussion expectations—and the importance of threaded discussions—in a separate, first day post to the class is important; it details what you are looking for in the discussions and their value to the students’ learning. And at the beginning of each week’s new discussions have a posting that gives an overview of expectations for each specific thread for the week. Both of these actions will reduce the number of student e-mails/postings asking for clarification from you and result in clearer and more focused student postings.
Give students examples of quality and not-so-good discussion postings. You can have students who are new to threaded discussions and those who have experienced them with other instructors; in either case, posting samples of good quality and not-so-good quality posts will give students a visual demo of what you expect from them. (Post screen shots of each, but always delete the names.) It’s also helpful to post a little blurb for each explaining why one is considered a great discussion thread and why the other is weak.
Be the first person to post in each threaded discussion. When the students see you are first in a discussion thread they know you are involved; you can set the pace and raise additional questions or mini-topics related to the primary topic of the thread; and your enthusiasm to get involved in the discussion will help get more students involved for an engaged thread.
Always give a summary posting on the last day of each threaded discussion. Just as you kicked off the week it’s also very helpful to wrap up the week’s postings—in each thread—with a summary posting. It can touch on the objectives you had for the week, always some “Nice going, class—good involvement this week!” motivation, and a reminder of the thread’s importance to the whole of the class.
Be positive and non-judgmental in all responses to student postings. You don’t want to lose any students with negative feedback in postings, whether to an individual student or the entire class. One of the biggest “no-nos” in any teaching is to berate or negatively judge a student in front of others; this is especially harmful in an online class where comments stick around, to be read again and again. First, stay positive—you can always find items on which to compliment a student and the whole class—and this leave all with a positive, “It’s-nice-to-be-here-and-involved” feeling. Of course, any corrections for students should be in a private, to-the-student-only e-mail and/or phone call.
In proactive and reactive postings make occasional use of your experiences—and their experiences. A great way to help keep students engaged in discussions and relate discussion topics to the real world is by tying them into some of your own experiences, whether as a professional or otherwise. This makes the information more “real”—and students always are interested in hearing something about their instructor’s life. This also works with students and is an especially good strategy for getting the somewhat reticent and not-doing-much-discussion-posting student to get more involved.
After each of your postings, end with a specific question or two to the class. This is a great way to keep the discussion thread going “full guns,” especially when the midway point or later in a discussion is reached and students begin to feel a bit burnt out. New questions—relating to the discussion topic or other student postings—can breathe new life into the discussion thread, while also expanding upon the learning experience, both vertically and horizontally. It also shows your continued interest and involvement in the discussion thread, most important as you are the Big Kahuna in each thread and set the pace.
Remain enthusiastic and interested about the postings throughout the thread. This may seem like a given, but it’s easy to lose sight of your diminished enthusiasm and motivation for the discussion thread—and empathy for student experiences—as the week wears on, as you need to continually get the class back on track with the topic, and as your life outside of teaching constantly pulls at you. While you may have been doing this for years, this class sees you fresh, and thus you must remain that one bubbling constant of interest and motivation in the discussion threads on which the students can always count.
Be a frequent presence in each discussion thread—but also know the importance of being absent. We all know how important it is to be constantly seen and “felt” by the students in the discussion threads, but it’s also very important to take off one or two days during each week—no posts, no presence from you! This serves two purposes: the students can interact on their own—which is good for the class and good for you to observe (so you might jump in the next day with some new ideas), and it gives you a break, so important in keeping you refreshed and enthused for week upon week of at least one and usually more than one discussion thread.
Limit your number of short postings. It’s easy, oh, so easy, to be a presence while posting sentences like, “Great job, class—keep it up!” and “Tony, good thought—build on that!” or “Cathy, nice response!” but these serve little good to the lifeblood of the discussion thread if they become the dominant type of postings you offer. Just as a captain steers a boat and motivates his or her crew, so do you steer the discussion thread and motivate its students; thus longer, more substantive postings from you are important. Sure, the short ones are okay now and then, but the operative words are “now and then.”
Be sure to transition a previous week’s discussion thread to the next one. I mentioned a lead-off post and a summary post by you. Each of these should include a smooth transition from the previous week and an easy transition into the next week. These keep the class holistic, as it should be, and the students have a much better understanding of how each discussion thread fits nicely into the whole of the class. This also allows students to more easily build on and integrate the previous week’s discussion threads’ postings.
Keep students from straying off topic in their postings. With so many folks involved in posting to a discussion topic it is easy for students to stray, posting items not related to the topic. All it takes is one student mentioning one item not related to the topic and like a swarm of honeybees many will suddenly whiz to make their thoughts known on the subject. It’s important you nip this early; if not there will be many wasted posts—and much more work for you (and possibly giving students poor discussion grades because some of their postings did not relate to the topic). Always take a positive approach in how you do it—but be sure you do it.
Be on the lookout for students who tend to dominate postings. This is the student who is very much involved, but too much, sometimes even seeming to take on the role of instructor by critiquing other students’ postings. While his or her enthusiasm is great the student’s overbearing approach can intimidate and scare off other students from staying engaged in the threads and can even result in not-so-nice exchanges between students. Send a private e-mail to the student, indicating you appreciate his or her enthusiasm, but it’s also important to have a fair exchange of ideas—and the only way this can happen is if all have the opportunity to contribute and that no-one should ever be critiqued in front of others. A great way to end this missive is with a question: “Can I count on you?” or “Will you help me out?” You create a stronger rapport with the student while turning lemons into lemonade.
Post additional resources to give added interest to discussion topics. The use of cartoons, websites, articles, etc. as they relate to a discussion topic can stimulate student interest in a discussion thread, while also adding additional info, insight, and ideas to the topic. And don’t hesitate to ask students to contribute these as well—either posted or attached in their discussion posting or elsewhere in the course (designated by you).
Be personal in responses by responding specifically to content in student posts and by using students’ names. The more you personalize your posts the better, and this not only includes responding to content in student posts but also using the students’ names. This personalizes you and helps you build a stronger rapport with others in class—always so important. Also, so the entire class will always feel you are speaking to each person in the class, even though you may be responding specifically to one or two or three students, lead off your posts with something like this: “Errol, Cathy, and all …”—this lets the class know you are not leaving anyone out in your response.
Remind students of the assigned reading material that relates to the discussion topic. When instructors grade student discussion postings nearly always part of that grade rests on the depth—the quality—of student posts. Yet if students have not read the material assigned for the week—or merely skimmed it—it will quickly become apparent they have only a limited understanding of the material, and thus their posts will be superficial at best. To help prevent this remind the students—about halfway through the week—of the assigned readings and their importance to the discussion threads.
For students hesitant to post ask them to be in charge of a discussion. This is a rather cool—and highly effective—strategy in getting the “quiet” student more actively involved in discussion. Send a private e-mail to X student, indicating you’d like him or her to toss out some leading thoughts and questions that relate to the topic, ending this first posting (it should come as close to your first posting as possible)—and this is crucial—by relating the topic and/or questions to experience of the student’s, either personal or professional. This makes it easy for the student to start off the discussion. Once the student has agreed, in your first posting of the thread let the class know that X will be kicking off the thread discussion and you’d like other posts to follow X’s lead. This does much to build the student’s “posting confidence,” helps get others involved, and makes for a more balanced discussion thread.
Call on colleagues for input and suggestions, and offer the same to them. This can prove so helpful, for no matter how long we have been involved in leading threaded discussions in online classes we cannot possibly have all the answers, know all the strategies to improving our threaded discussion effectiveness. So, reach out to colleagues, join online listservs, send e-mails to folks who author journal articles related to online teaching: ask for their input and assistance with threaded discussion problems and concerns you have. Believe me: you will get a throng of help!
If feasible use student teams in discussion threads. Depending on your course layout, the use of teams in discussion threads can be very helpful in getting the class heavily and enthusiastically engaged in posting. This can be done by either setting up individual threaded discussions for each team or by having teams post in one discussion thread (i.e., while all can see what the other teams post team members can only respond to posts from members in their team). This is effective because of one thing: camaraderie. It is easier to see who is not pulling his or her weight, and thus all of the team members tend to post regularly; also, team members become—quickly—like a small family, very supportive of one another, and thus very helpful to each other.
Be sure to respond quickly to students’ questions of you. Students will not only post responses to your questions and comments, but have questions of you, either in the discussion thread or elsewhere (including e-mails). Their nature can be just about anything related to the discussion thread, but often it is asking for clarification on a point you or someone else in class raised in the thread. Jump on this quickly—no longer than 24 hours after the student posts it—so you can remain on top and in charge of the class, so the students will always see you as involved and interested, and so you can continue to move the discussion thread along in a vigorous manner.
Create a variety of posts to keep students more engaged. If you post the same old-same old posts students will not only get bored of your “trademark” posts but you lose an opportunity to keep the students more engaged. And this works for the students, as well. Offer suggestions: in addition to asking questions of others in the posts suggest they also can post their own experiences, reference material in the text, bring up an article they read—anything that stays within the corral of that week’s discussion topic. You must also practice what you preach: be sure to vary your own posts. The results will be richer and there will be more posts from students.
Be careful of killing a thread by posting too much or giving a “dead-end” post. If you post as if you are a machine gun it’s enough to scare away students from posting. You are to be a facilitator in the discussion threads, not an owneroperator! Allow enough time between your posts to give students a chance to build on what you said/questions you asked—you will have a more rewarding and engaged discussion thread. Also, if you end your posts with no questions it dead-ends the conversation. The students have a thought of yours, yes, but nothing to push forward your thoughts, which questions do.
Be always aware of FERPA. FERPA—the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act—protects students’ privacy, and while most online instructors are aware of it, being certain that student grades for discussion, or any other personal info about a student (revealed to you by the student but not to the class), is never posted in a discussion thread where all can read it complies with FERPA.
Have students post practical applications of discussion topics if necessary. Another great strategy to keep discussions going—and have students renew their enthusiasm for posting once the week drags on—is to ask students to post practical applications of the thread’s topic; this can come from their personal or professional experience, as well as from something they know of or have read, seen, or heard but not experienced. This is always exciting for students to do because it allows them to dip into their lives, something easy for students to do (not as much conceptualization as in plain theoretical application) and which other students will find interesting because it is a peek into someone’s life.
Change discussion topics if it better fits the week. If you have preset discussion topics, remember that the only thing set in stone was the Ten Commandments. Don’t hesitate to change a discussion topic, as long as it stays in sync with the course’s weekly readings and weekly objectives. Sometimes, a change in a topic might be warranted by the direction you see the class taking (more or less focus on a topic is needed), a topic you think better explores the course readings and objectives for the week, or a topic you believe is more topical. But don’t do this willy-nilly: your course’s developer/the school put much thought into the discussion topics set with the course, so think through carefully any topic change.
If you create your own threaded discussion threads each week, do so wisely. Sometimes, courses are set with no preset weekly discussion topics, leaving it to the instructor to create them. If you do, create them with each week’s readings, student engagement, and course objectives in mind. Also, be sure to save these; in teaching the same course again you can use these initial discussion threads as templates, to either use as is or alter.
Always give constructive feedback. Be sure your feedback to students on their efforts in threaded discussions is always constructive, always positive, always encouraging, just as you would give for any student assignment. You want the students to improve, to build on what they have thus far accomplished in their threads, to remain enthusiastic and motivated for the next week’s discussion thread(s)!
REMEMBER: Excursions to new lands are always more exciting, enjoyable, meaningful, and memorable when there is a guide along who is interested, enthusiastic, and involved in the trip—and when there is none, well, just look at what happened to the lemmings.
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