Jim Witte's Tips for Effective Online Discussion (Nov 10 -2010)

This afternoon I attended the "Teaching Excellence" workshop presented by Jim Witte entitled: Online Discussion Strategies.  Jim basically went over all the tips for good online discussions that he has assembled over years.  A link to the pdf explaining all the tips can be found at:

http://jimwitte.com/workshops/11-10-2010-online-discussion#attachments 
(I highly recommend you download the pdf jwitte-online-discussion.pdf for future reference since it has some great suggestions.  Below I list the tips (the pdf has far more details).

1. Create discussions that have a purpose
2. Develop comfortable discussion questions focused on specific problems rather than broad, opinion-type questions.
3. Separate procedural communication from learning discussions.
4. Classic 1-week online discussion activity structure:  Initial posting (close and only then start) / 2 response postings.
5. Develop a rubric that lays out expectations, but is easy to apply.  Include # postings, required replies, deadlines. (pdf has examples)
6. Develop some guidelines for posting, general "rules of engagement".  This is a general extension to the grading rubric, applies to all postings. (pdf has examples)
7. Provide explicit instructions for each discussion activity.
8. Teach your students how to participate in an online discussion.
9. Practice "guide on the side".  Work hard at keeping moderators from becoming the locus of discussion.
10. Connect online discussion to F2F lectures (if applicable).
11. In large enrollment courses, use online discussion activities to break down the large into smaller.
12. Provide resources (readings, websites, media, etc.) for discussion activities.  keep the focus on the issues/topics, rather than the search form information.  It's good to give students a choice in materials (protects you from linkrot, accommodates student interests and abilities).
13. Consider using a variety of online discusson activities.  Choose discussion types that fit the goals for your course.  Activites that provide students with a choice can provide students with a way to make the course more relevant to their own interests, goals.
• reflective posting - write a reflective posting. Typical topics: asking students to write about their goals/interests in the course, or a summary of what the student thinks has
  been the most important or relevant points, or to relate the topics in the course to their own circumstances, job, studies, etc.
• jigsaw posting - students investigate multiple perspectives/aspects of an issue, bring back to the group as a whole. For example, instructor may develop 20 questions on a topic, and assign students to specific questions. Instructor should provide a few resources for each question. It's also possible to assign multiple students to the same question, and ask them to work together.
• critique posting - students create an artifact (a powerpoint, an outline, an analysis, a diagram, etc) and fellow students provide constructive feedback to make suggestions
  for improvement.
• pre/post lecture questions - in conjunction with a guest speaker (delivered f2f or via synchronous online videoconferencing), students can post questions in advance which could help inform the content of the guest lecture, or post followup questions for the guest speaker afterwards. In large courses, the function of the moderators might be to distill postings down to a smaller, more manageable set of questions.
• problem set postings - in some math/science/engineering disciplines, problem sets are common. General discussion space for problem sets, or individual discussion spaces for each problem make it possible for students to help each other.
• role play - students post in the voice/from the perspective of someone else, and post responses in that voice. The summary/wrapup might ask participants to look for extensions/elaborations to the perspectives presented, consider what perspectives might be missing, or identify common ground/differences.
• discussion jobs - In addressing a discussion topic, some students are assigned discussion jobs, like "idea generator", "skeptic", "wrapper", or "moderator".
• student-contributed readings - students can take turns posting websites, news articles, or articles from the library that pertain to the topics of the course.
• connect to informants - students connect to informants (perhaps students in other countries, in industry, in the field, etc) in order to gain information to be used in a report, presentation, web site, etc.
14. Ask about course discussion (online or f2f) in your informal mid-semester feedback, or use a poll/survey to get quick informal feedback.

This pdf file also goes into the positive aspects of online discussion compared to F2F discussion.  In addition Jim suggests some things on what things you can do with "discussion forums" other than discuss. 

One main point that kept coming up: STRUCTURE IS GOOD!

Other pdf files that are at the link are a short activity ( that may help you think of appropriate discussions for your course. (discussion-tps.pdf)
Ask yourself these questions:

1. What topics will your learners discuss? How will learners benefit from the discussion(s).
2. How might the activity be structured? Who will be discussing? (learners-instructor, learners learners, or perhaps someone outside the course?) How long might the discussion activity last? How many postings will learners make, and when? Do any of the formats listed in Tip 13 look promising?
3. How will learner postings be assessed? How will you judge the success of your online activity? What sort of information do you expect to need in order to improve your online activity the next time it's offered?

Another file shows you with figures the difference between course and activity discussions (Tip 3) and the chronological structure of a discussion (Tip 4). (discussion-figures.pdf).

I think the tip sheet will be a great resource to use when making sure that my discussions will be useful and varied.  I also like the idea of first having initial postings be open and then close, only after the close will the response postings be allowed.  That is different from ION courses.

Greetings, M.