Using Discussion Forums


Discussions have been around for a VERY long time!  We often feel as though there should be something better, and for some tasks there are other tools, but the idea of asynchronous discussion in online courses, is a long way from being worthless!  The tool can be adapted to may uses.  Discussions can be assessments when used as community-based assignments. They can also be used as community building tools, such as a "meet and greet" in a course orientation. They may be non-graded, like our Q&A discussion or when used for optional assessment sharing. Being able to adapt a tool to the desired activity in a course, is an important skill.  Preparing good discussion prompts can be a fine art.

When discussions are used in learning units, they may fall into several categories. They may be used for discussion of topics that call for opinion (usually backed by a source, such as an article, video, research study, recent news, or other item), assignment/sharing for feedback, call for personal experience relative to the content, or just to bring community clarity to a topic.  All of these types of discussions should be related to the content of a unit. You can even use a discussion as a type of game or competition.  The first category, opinion, if well written, can become a lively, full class conversation. 
Categories:
  1. opinion
  2. assignment/sharing for feedback
  3. personal experience
  4. clarity 
  5. game/competition
  6. Assignments/Assessments
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The art of discussion prompt writing starts with what you decide you want students to achieve with the discussion, as well as how you want them to respond.  Once you know what you're after, then consider whether or not your prompt will elicit the responses you're hoping for.  So, a discussion prompt has two parts.  The first is the prompt itself and the second is the directions provided about how peers will reply to each other.  If the directions only say, “reply to two peers”, they leave the students just offering encouragement that may or may not have substance.  If the directions say, “Reply to at least two others with whom you either agree or disagree with and tell them why you think that way” or something else that will cause there to be clear results, you are helping to reach your desired outcome for the discussion exercise.

Here are some samples of ice breaker/introduction discussions:
  • From a history teacher:  I as them to briefly introduce themselves and add in something called "3 Questions" to make it interesting.   "1. Who are you? 2. Where are you coming from? 3. Where are you going?"
  • From an English writing instructor:  Find the "longest sentence" or "most difficult sentence" that you've ever seen in a book and share it... I was originally thinking that it might just be nice to collect these so that we could study them one by one throughout the semester as we study different grammar points. 
  • From a computer science instructor: Ask people to introduce themselves by writing a little about who they are, one thing that is unique about them , what their goals are, and a little about their lives.  Then they have to find someone with whom they have something in common and make a connection.
  • From a Sociology Teacher: Put the participants in groups - and ask participants to find something that the group has in common (eg 'everyone has been to France' and something that is unique to each person in the group (eg 'plays water polo', 'speaks Greek', 'was born in Oregon').
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