Online Learning Instructor Handbook

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Facilitating Online Discussions

To help you work effectively with threaded discussion forums (forums arranged by responses to an initial message), here are some short narratives, links to supporting material, and samples that explain and illustrate how to facilitate learning with this popular form of computer-mediated communication (CMC). We've also included a short list of resources for further information.

Rae Wahl Rohfeld and Roger Hiemstra of Syracuse University state in Moderating Discussions in the Electronic Classroom that they believe

Teaching through discussion relies on a learner-centered approach, whether the participants meet face to face or on the computer screen. It rests on principles of collaborative learning and egalitarian relationships. . . . Effective discussion requires that everyone involved, instructor and learners alike, share in both the teaching and the learning. All participants assume responsibility for furthering discussion, although learners may require special preparation and clear guidelines to participate effectively.

Their experience shows that

Using a mix of these activities and styles can change the pace of discussion and provide alternative modes of participation. This variety also brings out different aspects of the topic by drawing on experience and reflection, action and theory. Such facilitation has the best chance of maintaining interest and involvement throughout the course." Among activities they suggest to encourage this collaborative interaction are
  • Polling or Brainstorming—pose open-ended questions about some course issue or topic and asked participants to brainstorm possible answers or solutions. The brainstorming rules require simple, non-evaluated responses that can be entered quickly. This sets the stage for more involved evaluative discussion later.
  • Debates—ask one small group to take one view on a course issue and a second group another. They then use the conference as a means for debating the issue. The facilitator's role becomes one of posing the issue, doing occasional weaving, and providing some sort of summary remarks at the conclusion of the debate period.
  • Same-time Discussion—the asynchronous nature of most conferencing discussions has both advantages and disadvantages. On occasion, we have established a certain time period, usually one to two hours, during which all participants agree to be active in the conferencing environment at the same time. Although such conversations are not totally synchronous, they almost seem so, and often generate considerable discussion and spark new interest.
  • Guest Lecturer or Discussant—introducing a new voice to renew interest in the conference. Have one or more guest lecturers connect into the conferencing system at scheduled times during the course. During a 1- or 2-week period they can present some initial ideas, interact with learners as they post their responses, and then provide summary remarks at one or more points in the discussion.
  • Student-moderated Discussions—invite interested learners to moderate aspects of the course discussion. Volunteers then take on the role of initiating discussion, interacting with participants, and providing weaving or summary remarks. This could be made a requirement of the course if appropriate. In either case, a facilitator should provide appropriate training, support, and intervention if needed.
  • Personal Journal Writing—provide space within the conferencing environment for each learner to write personal reflections or reactions to readings, discussions, or other learning experiences. Some learners use such personal journal information as bases for final course products.

Tips on Facilitating Collaborative Work

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Discussion Roles

In order to make collaborative interactions fruitful, it is useful to be aware of various discussion roles, including

  • initiating;
  • giving and asking for information;
  • giving and asking for reactions;
  • sponsoring and encouraging;
  • restating and giving examples;
  • evaluating and diagnosing;
  • confronting and reality testing; and
  • clarifying, synthesizing, and summarizing.
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Encouraging Participation

There are two ways to encourage learners to participate in the discussion forum—intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

  • An example of extrinsic motivation is making participation mandatory. For example, you may require learners to post one original message and respond to the posting of another learner, each week.
  • Intrinsic motivation involves setting up the discussion forum as a tool for learners to accomplish a particular goal. For example, if they are assigned a group project and the discussion forum is identified as a tool for facilitating the project, learners will be intrinsically motivated to use the forum to accomplish their given task.

A single course can include both intrinsic and extrinsic use of discussion forums. For example, you may create team discussion forums where learners can work on a project in small groups (instrinsic), and then ask the teams to report their results to the entire class on another discussion forum dedicate to that purpose (extrinsic).

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Planning Your Forum

Thorough preparation is essential to an effective online forum. The extra effort you invest before starting the forum will reduce the time you need to spend dealing with problems later, and will increase positive participation. In their text, "Building a Web-Based Education System," Colin McCormack and David Jones list some of the factors the teacher and/or others on the instructional team need to consider before beginning an online forum:

  • requirement fulfillment—put in place all technical and nontechnical requirements, including software, hardware, and learner support procedures;
  • testing—test hardware and software to be used under same conditions most learners will encounter;
  • training—supply technical training to learners as needed to enable participation;
  • etiquette—advise learners of online standards of behavior;
  • alternatives—plan ways to communicate and submit assignments if technology fails;
  • access—ensure all learners have access and have joined the forum;
  • scene setting—make learners aware of the purposes, expectations, and details of the online forum;
  • starting—if possible, hold a face-to-face meeting before the online forum begins to break the ice, train, and disseminate information; and
  • introductions—have learners introduce themselves in a post to the discussion forum as a first exercise, with perhaps a photo and some personal details of each.
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The Moderator

Moderators perform an array of duties, including organizational tasks, such as providing information on the "how, why, and what" of participating in the forum; educational tasks, such as those mentioned directly above; and social tasks, such as ensuring a social climate that promotes participation and exchange.

For example, a moderator can assist by doing adequate "weaving." "With many people contributing ideas over a period of time, participants may have difficulty connecting parts of the discussion to each other. Weaving can help them keep track of the conversation and stimulate continued thought. The facilitator finds unifying threads, calls attention to opposing directions, summarizes, and prompts people to pursue the topic further." (Feenberg,1989)

McCormack and Jones have discovered that the most successful moderators of online discussion share certain traits. They are

  • experienced—have at least some experience with the online environment as a teacher or learner;
  • flexible—able to cope with unplanned events;
  • tolerant—can deal with all situations and personalities without appearing angry or frustrated;
  • supportive—urge participants to contribute, and offer support as required;
  • knowledgeable—can correct misunderstandings, and make useful and proactive statements to shape the discussion;
  • good listeners—are good at discerning what participants mean as well as what they say, without physical clues;
  • good communicators—model clear and concise online communication;
  • not authoritarian—encourage participation without fear of ridicule or embarrassment;
  • organized—put significant planning into forum and discussion organization;
  • responsive—respond promptly to messages and questions;
  • available—have the time to be responsive to communication not restricted to a particular day or time;
  • technically savvy—with technical support, can respond to technical difficulties that arise in running of the forum; and
  • enthusiastic—convey their love of the subject to learners in a personal way.
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Tips for Good Facilitation

In his analysis of 3,000 online course evaluations done for Capella University, Rossman discovered that online learners are most appreciative of the following:

  1. Prompt feedback from faculty. They appreciate it when comments are posted in the discussion forum in a timely manner.
  2. Specific feedback. They view general comments such as "nice job" or "good response" as being indicative of a disinterested faculty member.
  3. Sensitivity. Learners do not object to opinions being challenged as long as the individual is not belittled or humiliated for offering the response.
  4. Privacy. They ask that negative comments be given privately, preferably through a phone call or private e-mail.

The evaluations also included these student observations on their participation:

  1. Learners appreciate and learn from the responses of other learners. Learner responses are seen as a valuable aspect of the course.
  2. There is perceived guilt among some learners about not posting when the postings of others already captured the essence of what they wanted to say.
  3. Learners do not like it when fellow classmates did not keep current with the weekly online-posting requirements.
  4. Learners prefer discussion forums that encourage open and honest dialog, are not dominated by one or two "dominant voices," and are not used to express non-course-related concerns or complaints.

Ohio State University learners and teachers offer further suggestions for successful facilitation, in Nancy Chism's "Tips from Instructors and Literature":

  1. If there are classroom sessions as well as online learning, link the electronic discussion to things that occur in the classroom by referencing points made in the discussion, or linking assignments to class activities.
  2. Provide an explicit orientation to the notion of electronic class discussion. One teacher summarized, "I can set it up so they can give each other support and encouragement and feedback and ideas, but it doesn't work if that's not what they want. If you can begin to move the learners toward seeing the way they can complement one another with these kinds of exchanges, I think that would be really important."
  3. Make sure you have the time to commit to distance learning. "Don't do it [electronic teaching] at a time when you're teaching another new course. There's lots to learn—technically, conceptually, philosophically, pedagogically."
  4. Be willing to put in the time and effort needed to be a good facilitator. Maintain a balance between enough structure to ensure order and civility but not so much as to dominate learner discussion.
  5. Structure the forum consistently with course goals. "If it's a writing class, I'd say that the [electronic discussion] should be the learners' space and that the instructor should be very passive and talk about issues and conflicts in writing as they come up and help them bring this to their paper assignments. . . . If it's for more of a content area, I would focus it upon certain issues that they're going to discuss: reactions to books they may have read, reactions to historical events."
  6. Emphasize good Netiquette and model it yourself. Structure the postings. As one learner said, "You can't just say, 'Write about something.' It has to be an assignment. [The learners] have to feel it's important."
  7. Don't assume learners know more about using electronic mail than you do. Much learner computer use has been for games and entertainment, so knowledge of mail programs, the conventions of word processing, and the like might not be as developed as commonly assumed.
  8. Give learners more direct help in getting started with electronic discussion. Make sure all have access to the computers, modems, and software they need. Be ready to provide technical instruction yourselves or link learners with peers or technical support staff. Printed instructions or, if possible, a class trip to a computer lab for the first class session can help.
  9. Although some learners resent requirements for a certain number of postings, because they feel they don't anything to say, most recommend instructors require participation in some way. One faculty member commented, "Motivation in a learning environment within a university means it has to be related to grades and requirements rather than some kind of intrinsic value. I don't like being reminded of this, but it's true."
  10. Provide an explicit grading rubric that specifies how you will evaluate contributions.
  11. Limit the number of messages to a reasonable amount based upon class size so learners do not receive an inordinate number of messages. When class sizes are large, set up separate discussion lists for subsections of the class.
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Effective Questions

Questioning is a significant instructional design element for promoting effective discussion. It's always a challenge to ask questions that spark interest and lead to thoughtful interaction, and particularly daunting to engage learners in ongoing discussion from the beginning through the end of a distance learning course in which they don't see or hear each other. Lin Muilenburg and Zane Berge's Framework for Designing Questions for Online Learning presents numerous examples of discussion questions gathered from experienced online instructors. Among their suggestions for "read and think" questions that encourage higher order thinking in response to course reading are the following:

  • Focus on Main Topic or Issue: Example—"John Covaleski's piece really challenges the whole notion of conducting systemic reform. His central argument is that mediocrity is systemic; excellence cannot be. While no one would dispute that there are examples of excellence in particular classrooms, as a whole the educational system seems to tend toward minimal competence rather than excellence. If it is the case that the system itself, like the universe tending toward chaos, works against a broad spread of excellence, we must ask the question: what then is (or should be) the goal of reform efforts?"
  • Series Of Divergent Questions with Expanding Follow-Up: Example—"Of the restructuring issues we'll deal with in this course, probably none is as controversial as the issue of choice. So, naturally, we're starting with that one. Choice is an issue that can be understood in a variety of ways and in a variety of contexts. How freely shall we allow the schools of a district to vary? How about teachers within a school? For that matter, how freely shall we allow the districts of a state to vary? How do we (can we?) meet the education needs of all learners within a given school? Is the traditional school doing a very good job of that now? Where is the learner's choice? The parent's? What does this business of choice mean to you?"
  • Evaluative: Examples—"Who was more convincing: Coulson with his ideas of education as goods to be freely sought for and provided, or Covaleski with his idea of the common good?" Tie in to current events: "Patrick Shields helps us consider the place of parents and community in the school reform movement. Anyone reading the paper lately? We have a home-grown parent-and-community situation right here in dear old West Lafayette. How can Shield's framework help us understand what's happening on the West Side?"
  • Quotation of Contrasting Views: Example—"Here are two divergent perspectives on the role of technology in education. The first is from Howard Mehlinger, former Dean of Education and now Director of the Center for Excellence in Education at Indiana University. The second is from Steven Jobs, founder of Apple Computer, who seems now to be trying to revitalize the fortunes of that company . . . [There follows an extended quote from each person.] "Is one or the other of these guys right? Is technology a key to educational reform, something that can't make any difference at all, or maybe something else altogether? What's your take on this issue?"
  • Building on Classmates' Posts: Example—Post #1: "Identify three major social changes that occurred from 1865 to 1910. Explain each of these by detailing what happened to cause this change, the time span it took for the change to occur, and the way the change was expressed in the literature we will be reading." Post #2: "Compare the changes you identified with the changes that your classmates identified. Discuss the merits of the changes your classmates identified that you did not. Reflect and see if you have changed or modified your original three ideas." Post #3: "You will not be able to complete post #3 until you read the literature for the unit. When you have, you will focus your answers author [sic] and on his/her piece(s) of literature that was assigned to your group. Using the information about your author and his/her piece(s) of literature your group researched, show how this piece of literature reflects one of the changes you or a classmate identified."
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Resources

  • Muilenburg, L,. and Z. Berge. 2000. A Framework for Designing Questions for Online Learning. DEOSNEWS 10 (2). Available: http://www.emoderators.com/moderators/muilenburg.html
  • Palloff, R., and K. Pratt. 2001. Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom: The Realities of Online Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
  • Rohfeld, R. W., and R. Hiemstra. Moderating Discussions in the Electronic Classroom. Published in Berge, Z.L. & Collins, M.P. (Eds). Distance Education. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press. (1995) Available: http://www.emoderators.com/moderators/rohfeld.html
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