General Tips regrading Discussion Boards
Discussion boards (also referred to as discussion forums) are an important mode of interaction in an online course. There are several important considerations when creating effective discussion forum activities.
- Encourage responses that provide unique insights by asking open ended questions. Create discussion prompts that do not have simple, “correct” answers. This will ensure that students are able to post original content rather than what someone else has already posted. It will also help encourage discussion to take place rather than being a posting place for what might otherwise work better as a quiz.
- Model a friendly tone through your prompts. Promote a friendly and helpful environment by designing discussion prompts with a positive tone.
- Moderate the size of your discussions. Most discussion tools offer the ability to assign students to separate groups. Consider assigning students to discussion groups if the class size is large to prevent students from becoming overwhelmed. Each group can discuss the same questions and one representative from the group could summarize their discussion to a discussion for the whole class.
- Create ground rules. Share your expectations for student communication and contributions to discussion boards early on in the course. Provide students with guidelines or a rubric to follow and let them know what types of language is and is not acceptable. There are a variety of rubrics you can use to share expectations for contributions and ensure transparency in grading. We are happy to chat with you about some sample rubrics we have available.
Ideas for Reframing Student Posts to Discussion Boards
If you are thinking about taking your discussions to the next level, we have gathered some ideas for creative discussion framing. These include TAG, 3CQ, 6 Thinking Hats, and Fishbowl.
Framework 1: TAG
This strategy takes the basic “post once and reply to two peers” up a notch by providing guidance to students about what should be included in their reply. TAG stands for “tell, ask a question, and give a resource/suggestion.” The framework around the reply helps to move students beyond a basic answer that may fulfill the requirement of a reply toward a more thoughtful response that engages their peers.
Framework 2: 3CQ
Like the TAG strategy, this strategy adds a framework to the students’ replies to their peers. 3CQ stands for “compliment, comment, connection, and question.” The framework around the reply helps to move students beyond a basic answer that may fulfill the requirement of a reply toward a more thoughtful response that engages their peers. The students are asked to compliment their peer’s initial post, make a comment about the post, make a connection between the post and their own or to something else in the course, and to end with a question back to their peer. You can see this framework may require more work on the students’ part in crafting their reply, but if the goal is to promote interaction then this framework is a great option. We suggest providing a page in the orientation module that sets up the expectations for discussion boards and replying using the 3CQ method.
Framework 3: Six Thinking Hats
Based on the book by de Bono of the same title, the Six Thinking Hats can be adapted for online discussion between students. The goal of the Six Thinking Hats is to boost the productivity of creative thinking by dividing up the different styles of thinking into six “hats”: logic, emotion, caution, optimism, creativity, and control. You can assign each student to take on the role of a hat, ensuring that all viewpoints and styles are covered. Students must respond using only logic or only caution. By using the various types of hats and asking students to reply using potentially an assigned hat, you will force them into thinking in a new way. Additionally, the use of the Six Thinking Hats will ensure a dynamic and different discussion to occur.
We suggest including a page in the Course Orientation that outlines more details about this technique so that students feel sufficiently ready to participate in this way. The Six Thinking Hats book is also relatively short so you could ask students to read the book as part of your course expectations, especially if you adopt this technique for the duration of your course. The video below gives you an overview of the Six Thinking Hats concept, if you’d like to begin to explore this idea more.
Framework 4: Fishbowl
The Fishbowl framework uses a similar idea that can at times be used in a face to face classroom. In the fishbowl, there are those who are active in a discussion, like a goldfish inside of a fishbowl, and there are those who are outside of the discussion observing, like a person watching a goldfish inside of the fishbowl. To restate in terms of the online discussion board, some learners are invited to participate in the discussion on a given topic, and others are instructed to sit back and observe. Then, at the end of the discussion, the people who observed provide commentaries on what took place. They summarize how the discussion unfolded, and they can also provide observations about the way in which the group functioned in the discussion. For example, the students can post their observations as to who responded to who or which thread of the topic allowed for the most replies. Again, this type of discussion requires a bit more direction to getting students started, especially at first, but it can provide a more dynamic interaction between students.
If you’d like to chat more about these ideas or share one with us, reach out to the Center for eLearning Initiatives at our Consultation Request page.
