Be sure to read and follow your course-specific discussion assignment instructions. Ask a different online learner to co-host the online wingtalks review discussion with you each week. Invite them to create a post or question that sparks a conversation. This gives them the opportunity to share experiences and knowledge with their peers. They can also learn about different perspectives or get eLearning feedback that helps them improve.

Explain at the start of the course the reason and value of the discussions, and outline the discussion methods you will use. If students perceive the value they will make them a priority. Engaging in discussions does indeed empower everyone to share valuable perspectives. Teachers can leverage this activity virtually using the same tactics, and leveraging breakout rooms, Google hangouts, or a similar tool for students to interact with one another. When it comes to configuring students into different formats (both virtually and in-person), the sky is the limit. Google Forms are such a simple and easy tool for teachers and students alike.

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You can do this by modeling good online communication practices, such as using positive and supportive language, acknowledging and building on others’ contributions, and providing feedback and guidance. An interactive course goes beyond passive video watching to include community discussion, peer feedback, live sessions, cohort-based progression, and applied exercises. On Ruzuku, courses with these elements achieve 65.5% completion versus 42.6% for passive courses — a 54% improvement driven by social presence and accountability. Now that you’ve explored strategies for designing more meaningful online discussions, take a few minutes to apply one to your own course. Sometimes the best way to get online learners involved is by giving them a choice.

Live Sessions And Workshops

In 2008, John Hattie released a meta-study about visible learning, and since then, the education community has shifted its focus from teachers as presenters of knowledge to facilitators of learning. You can drop into the breakout rooms to check on individual conversations, or scan the collaboration space for groups that may need assistance. Overall, small group discussions are more focused when they have goals or deliverables, even if it’s something low-stakes or informal.

See our group coaching guide for specific implementation patterns. Not an empty forum — a specific question that asks students to apply what they just learned. “How would you adapt this technique for your own practice?” is better than “Any questions?” Make discussion part of the course, not alongside it. Live sessions add a layer of interactivity that recorded content can’t replicate. When a student asks a question in real time and gets an answer, the learning sticks differently than watching a pre-recorded FAQ.

An Introduction To Strategies For Meaningful Online Discussions

• Depending upon the grade level of your students, you may have to shift.
• Take your work from the critical thinking questions and expand on it.
• Kick the discussion off right by sharing ideas, asking questions, and raising what you see as the most important issues to talk about.
• When it comes to technology, sometimes less is more.

Allow time for students to respond to each other, before commenting. Whenever possible, provide sample posts to illustrate what strong contributions and peer responses look like. You can even turn this into a discussion activity by inviting students to identify the strengths of the provided examples. Clear guidelines and transparent assessment not only help students meet the discussion’s objectives but also reduce anxiety about participation.

However, in the beginning you’ll need to play an active role in the online discussion. Post questions, online articles, and prompts that encourage online learners to reflect. Invite them to share feedback and voice their concerns. The goal is to break the ice so that online learners become invested in the online discussion and want to actively participate. If you’re working with a distracted audience, you may need to take it a step further and get controversial. Shine the spotlight on their assumptions by asking thought provoking questions.

Teachers can be involved as little or as much as necessary, and throughout the year, they can scaffold panel discussions to full, student-led conversations. Students can then collaborate in a virtual setting, and they already are familiar with the topic since they answered the question similarly. Google Forms are quick to make, and the data is simple to process (especially with the multiple choice and checkbox features), which makes it a time-saving tool. The slides are easy to monitor in real time using the Grid View in Google Slides. This allows teachers to see the overall discussion activity in one single view and check in on groups that may need additional prompting. You can learn more and grab Shana’s free note taker templates here.

If a class meeting involves a mix of lecture and discussion, cue that shift explicitly, set a time frame, and let students know the specific goals of the discussion at hand. For example, do you want them to interpret a dataset? Should they aim to get a sense of how the class reacted to a reading? Or, will students pitch and critique solutions to a problem they’ve explored?

Avoid broad topic threads (i.e., What do you think of the Spanish Civil War?) and factual questions for which there is only one answer. Include guided discussion questions, promote critical thinking through Socratic questioning, ask students to compare and contrast, connect to prior knowledge, etc. It can be frustrating to read through a busy discussion forum with lots of posts and replies. Make sure to create new threads if new topics evolve in the discussion.

The second most impactful interactive feature is giving students a shared timeline. On Ruzuku, cohort-based courses achieve 64.2% completion versus 48.2% for self-paced — a 33% improvement. Scheduled courses also generate nearly 4x more discussion comments per course (311 average versus 83 for self-paced). Structure doesn’t just improve completion; it changes how deeply students engage.

To add another layer of complexity, the audience can partake in a virtual discussion to mimic “tweeting,” which often happens during panel discussion. Jenna uses a shared Google Doc or Backchannel Chat for her audience members. Read a multiple choice question slowly and carefully so all students can hear the question and answer choices. Read answer choices a second time if necessary. Then, tell students to move their rectangles to choice A, B, C, or D. Ed Sheeran was not the first to ponder the concept of “Thinking Out Loud”.

We welcome accompanying assistants, interpreters, and note-takers. The online environment comes with many benefits, including learning from your peers in addition to your instructor. Use the time productively to hone lifelong skills and refine your ideas about the course content. If you’re the first to post, strive to encourage discussion. Get others thinking (and writing) by making bold statements or including open-ended questions in your message.

One of her go-to silent discussion strategies is a Color-Coded Conversation using a shared document. Students should be made aware of the topics they will discuss, the order in which they will be discussed, and how long the teacher plans to spend on each topic. This will keep the meeting moving forward, engaging students, and it provides security for the online learner because they know what to expect from their teacher. It’s normal to feel intimidated by the amount of information to track during a virtual discussion. If you’re lucky enough to have a TA, they can help by monitoring the participants and chat window, bringing things to your attention at the right moment or preemptively responding to questions.

Provide plenty of timely, constructive, and quality feedback, and where appropriate, add to a student’s answer engaging them in more dialogue. When the instructor participates in the discussion, providing critique, encouragement, and feedback, students cannot help but become more involved. This chapter will provide the learner with an overview of online discussion management approaches, pedagogy, best practices, and tactics. It also looks at advanced methods of online discussions that help advance student learning to new levels.

Prepare students to expect that you’ll call on them, but in a way that is flexible and kind. Providing questions and prompts ahead of time makes calling on students feel less like an intimidating pop quiz and more like an extension of the thinking they’ve already begun. Cohort models generate nearly 4x more discussion (311 comments per course versus 83 for self-paced on Ruzuku). But you can add interactive elements to self-paced courses too. A hybrid approach — self-paced content with cohort-based discussion and optional live sessions — often captures the best of both.

These tools can take many forms, from chat sessions, to discussion forums, to video chat. The value of the online discussion is that even those students who are shy and timid can find the time to express their views, and more in-depth dialogue between students-students can occur. Online learners have the opportunity to interact with their peers and share eLearning experiences, even if they live on different continents.

Articulating what you’ve learned in your own words strengthens retention far more than passively re-reading or re-watching. When a student writes a discussion post explaining how they’ll apply this week’s concept, they’re doing the cognitive work that creates lasting learning. This effect has been documented across hundreds of studies in cognitive psychology. The University of Waterloo is committed to achieving barrier-free accessibility for persons with disabilities who are visiting, studying, or working at Waterloo. CTE’s online workshops are delivered through either Microsoft Teams or Zoom with the audio component available either as captioning or a transcript. CTE’s face-to-face workshops typically involve a mix of presentation and discussion-based activities, and we encourage a scent-free environment.

Those who post first are most often responded to and cited by others. Remember to check back and see if and how others have responded to your ideas. For more open- ended discussions, complete any of the assigned readings prior to drafting your post. You may be asked to think of a thesis and how to support it. Then read the other postings and see how they support or contradict your idea and write about this.

If you are turning the tables, make sure to set some ground rules and assign topics well in advance. The fifth step to lead online discussions is to adapt to the online environment, which may pose some challenges and opportunities for communication. You should be aware of the potential barriers and benefits of online communication, such as lack of non-verbal cues, time differences, cultural diversity, and digital literacy. Intentional planning around the pre-work will determine the depth of conversation during an online discussion. Students should be expected to read, research, watch a video, or interact with the content of the discussion prior to beginning an online discussion.