Interactivity

Discussion Group Learning Principles

Learning through communication and collaboration with others supports a constructivist view of knowledge creation. This view holds that students create new knowledge by building on what they already know, and by communicating with others.*

• Building a community of learning attends to the social nature of learning
• Students actively learn from each other through cooperative interaction and knowledge sharing.
• Participation encourages time on task.

Advantages

• Student postings show more reflective thinking than immediate classroom responses.
• An opportunity for critical thinking and problem solving is provided.
• Everyone has a chance to participate.

Disadvantages

• Time consuming to monitor, especially with large groups.
• Navigation may be a problem.
  

Tips for Successful Management of Discussion Groups Online

• Be clear about the instructor role as facilitator. Balance your level of participation so that students know you are present, but not dominating the discussion. If you respond to every posting, students will stop establishing dialogue with each other, and wait for your postings only.
   
• Assign marks for the postings. Some teachers assign 15 to 20% of the course grade to the Discussion Group participation.
   
• Provide clear directions regarding expectations for participation; number, length and type of postings, deadline for postings, guidelines for communication, etc.
  Encourage thoughtful but brief postings (no more than 2-3 screens); otherwise the students will post a more formal paper.
  Encourage the use of emoticons such as :+)  to convey emotion.
  Weave the subject matter into the life experience of the participants as a means of helping students establish relevance and meaning.
  (Source: Adapted from Rena M. Pallof, and Pratt, Keith. 2001. Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom
  The Realities of Online Teaching, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.)
   
• Always provide guidelines for appropriate behaviour in a discussion group (Netiquette).
   
• Distribute a discussion posting evaluation rubric if possible.

• Pose questions that contain some controversy, and encourage students to defend their positions in support or opposition to the issue.
   
• One teacher reviews Bloom’s taxonomy with the students and informs them that this is the basis on which the postings will be evaluated.
   
• Provide variety throughout the session that appeals to all learning styles e.g., students have opportunity to work alone, in dyads, small groups; students may rotate turns at moderating the discussion ie. Ask students to select a topic, construct questions, and lead the discussion for a few days or week.  Design assignments that require both action and reflection, rather than reading only i.e., Encourage students to explore, research, work alone and collaboratively.
   
• Pay attention to participation levels and address them promptly.
   

Try to ask open ended, expansive questions that promote reflection and critical thinking.  It may be helpful to model a reflective response for students, or at least provide an example of a thoughtful posting.