Have you ever tried talking to a brick wall? Literally, of course, that is something we all shun as fruitless, although figurative brick walls are harder to avoid in our daily dealings with bureaucracy, and others with inflexible, opaque interests. A distance education student may sometimes feel that an on-line course is like learning from a brick wall, with the computer screen substituting for stone and mortar.
Well-designed distance education courses are not that way, however, because they are able to draw the student into a learning process in which he or she has real influence and meaningful interaction with others, and they deliver useable knowledge. On the adult education level, one very powerful way to achieve such quality on-line learning is by replicating in-classroom discussions, often referred to as threaded discussions or forums. The art and science of developing and running such discussions takes planning, skill, and flexibility on the part of an instructor.
A fair amount of literature and instruction is now available to successfully guide teachers in designing and executing an on-line discussion. Much less guidance is available, however, for the student participating in threaded discussions in how to break through the wall of isolation that can come from sitting at a lonely computer terminal.
To help students new to threaded discussions, and others facing a block when participating in them, I've put together some practical tips for instructors to improve student performance in on-line forums. These tips will also help students to ease and widen their participation, and increase their benefits from this very useful learning tool.
This article is a companion piece to one I wrote for Learning Solutions e-Magazine in 2006, “Beyond Self-Teaching On-Line: Using the Threaded Discussion in Distance Education.” I briefly introduce the structure of an academic threaded discussion, offer insight on ways to develop one to invite student participation and success, and give a variety of proven methods students can use to share their views and learn with others on-line. I have focused mainly on college-level distance education studies, although these hints may also be useful in any in-depth on-line discussion.
Threaded discussion overview
A threaded discussion may take many forms, so I will concentrate on a forum where a class of mature and knowledgeable students offers insightful commentary on a topic in an iterative fashion, to instruct themselves through different views, analyze situations, and propose new ideas or solutions. Such threaded discussions go beyond discovering the “one right solution,” or shallow on-line chats of single inputs or multiple one-sentence observations.
This model replicates on-line a college classroom seminar, and as such offers some distinct advantages and disadvantages compared to the face-to-face method. To take advantage of the relaxed scheduling that asynchronous distance education offers, an on-line discussion allows students to post to the conversation at any time of day for the duration of the discussion.
Asynchronous means that, when participating, students’ comments are available to all, delivered through the Internet, and delivered in near-real time. As such, all students can participate, since the egalitarian nature of an on-line discussion cannot be as readily controlled by quick witted or dominating personalities.
A forum can be faculty-led and assessed, with the instructor posing questions to start and to continue a discussion, or entirely conducted by students for their own benefit, or something in between. These methods assume that teacher and students prepare beforehand to discuss the topics intelligently, and directly address the subject at hand.
Challenges and benefits of threaded discussion
Compared to a classroom, a threaded discussion offers some additional challenges. You should expect time lags because students will post when they are able. Intervals between posts could span a day or more, depending on guidance in the syllabus. Such postings are not always in topical sequence, either, since late participants may comment on earlier topics before engaging the discussion at its current position. Out-of-order entries are more acceptable on-line where you can review earlier inputs, or where on-line systems allow comment nesting through topical groupings.
Time lags can have advantages too. Unlike a classroom discussion, students have the time and resources to do further research on the internet, or ponder a point before responding. Used properly, such delays enrich and inform the dialogue. Teachers must also carefully plan for online discussions, since instructions to students concerning their assignment, and the site on which to accomplish it, must be entirely clear and self sustaining, or else the teacher runs the risk of wasted effort and frustrated students.
The benefits of threaded discussions make them an entirely worthwhile addition to any course, despite these drawbacks. Students may appreciate a forum offering the opportunity to interact directly with peers and an instructor in a give-and-take manner. Threaded discussions are also very flexible, allowing even precisely-planned courses to change to meet emerging student interests, or to discuss an unfurling related news event.
A threaded discussion is also a welcome relief from single-shot assessments like tests and papers, where the student has much less interim feedback on his or her mastery of the course material. A discussion encourages classmates, and the instructor, to reply and comment on postings. Through the replies and comments, a student may gauge his or her progress on understanding the material.
A forum offers another style of assessment that is less formal than writing an essay, but more expressive than an objective test. This method of assessment gives students additional ways to show what they know, if they do not demonstrate that as well in formal writing or tests. A forum offers teachers a venue to interactively assess, and to teach beyond assigned readings or videos, too.
Monitoring students’ understanding through a forum allows an instructor to determine whether students are accomplishing lesson objectives, and is the venue through which a teacher can intervene if they are not. A well prepared, in depth, iterative threaded discussion offers advantages to on-line teaching through its relatively relaxed and flexible nature that gives faculty a continual assessment and teaching tool. Students benefit from human interaction, having an additional way to show mastery of the course material, and learning from the knowledge of fellow students – despite the time lags and jumbled nature of responses that may result.
Instructor tips for student participation
To help the distance education student learn, an instructor should ensure that there are many loopholes and gates leading through the brick wall obstacle that some students perceive. Such assistance may come as a well-thought-out and -presented forum, keen monitoring of the discussion, and ready access to the instructor to fix and direct problems as they arise. A good course is set up with multiple chances for the student to succeed. Because the discussion must run itself for long periods of time (to accommodate sleeping, eating, and other activities in which a teacher may want to engage), its purpose, task, and participation expectations should be entirely self-evident to a student without further intervention from the instructor.
Getting off to a good start
Good guidance starts with clear instructions and expectations written into the course syllabus and supplemental information. Upon entering the on-line area where threaded discussions occur, the instructor should orient students to the intent of this on-line event, and remind them of the important aspects of the forum that they will find in the syllabus. As part of lesson planning, the instructor should carefully write the questions that will guide the discussion, or the task, to which students must respond. Any uncertainty on how to begin will manifest in student frustration and reluctance to start engaging.
If a discussion lasts for several days or more, an opening question might be a relatively easy one that draws in student participation and builds confidence (especially during a forum early in a course, or with students new to this method of learning). An easy first question may soon play itself out, so embedded in the question should be a second and third step that later students can use to broaden a maturing conversation. This phased, multi-question approach will succeed if part of the guidance students receive in the syllabus is to not re-answer an initial question, if previous participants have already done so adequately, but to critique earlier comments, or build upon them, using the other parts of the question already posted. That allows a question to drive a discussion for several days by itself.
Through careful presentation of the assignment, and soliciting feedback from colleagues or previous students, you can catch unintended consequences before the students receive their task. Presenting the question or tasking should also be clear and consistent, so that students do not second guess their assignment.
Sustaining participation
Once the discussion starts, instructors may encounter two problems with student participation: students front-loading or back-loading their participation, rather than engaging in a steady conversation throughout. Front-loaded participation means that most of the students actively participate early in the threaded discussion availability period, and participation for most people tails off dramatically at the end. Back loading is the opposite; most participation occurs in the last couple of days of a threaded discussion with little occurring early in the availability period. This may be caused by a difficult or unclear opening question so students wait for others to venture into the fray, which pushes the conversation into the back end.
It may be unavoidable that students concentrate their efforts because of their own availability schedule, and it may even be welcome, since that means that the inherent flexibility of asynchronous on-line learning is delivering for the student. When all students avoid participation for the same event, then the instructor did not plan adequately in order to avoid the conflict. A single major event like the Super Bowl or a critical World Cup match can skew short duration discussions, while events such as a long holiday weekend, or a mid-term examinations schedule may adversely impact longer duration forums.
A course author may also level participation through the guidance students are given, and through the questions an instructor poses during the discussion. The course instructions should make clear the amount of participation expected, and what an acceptable input includes. At a minimum, for an in-depth, insightful discussion, such guidance should require each student to make an initial response to the opening question or task, and to respond to two others’ inputs in a meaningful way. This promotes student interaction along the avenue envisioned by the instructor. Instructors could also require a daily, or some other set period, posting depending on the course workload and nature of the assignment. It should be readily apparent to the student, however, what is expected.
A well-timed and well-guided forum may still have skewed participation problems, however, if the assignment itself drives it that way. An easy opening question with a right or wrong answer encourages student front-loading. A vague poorly-worded opening, or one that is complex and impenetrable, will encourage students to wait for someone else to start, and then to adapt their answers based on the feedback the first student gets. A phased multi-question forum (as described earlier) may alleviate both of these problems.
A threaded discussion is a group effort
The students must also be comfortable, from guidance given by the instructor, that a threaded discussion is as much a group effort as an individual one. They should learn as a group. Everyone does not have to show mastery of all concepts all of the time. Use tests and essays to assess such individual level of knowledge; threaded discussions have a different purpose. If evaluated, perhaps the guidance might state that the baseline grade is determined on the collective insight and level of discussions or solutions, so that a rising tide raises all boats, and adjustment of individual performance will depend upon a student’s contribution in attaining the overall level. Such group cooperation and learning is one of the strengths of threaded discussions.
Evaluating progress and moving on
Before transitioning from an initial discussion, an instructor should determine that the students have met the question’s objective, and that the desired number of students have attained a requisite baseline of knowledge. Should that not occur, the threaded discussion offers the instructor the opportunity for specific on-line teaching to fill the gap before climbing to a more demanding level. The flexibility of on-line discussions also means that the instructor may never move to higher level concepts, or may delay their introduction, because the remainder of the allotted time is used in basic instruction where it is needed.
Once the initial assignment has run its course, the instructor should have follow-on question(s) that take the discussions to a higher cognitive level involving application, evaluation, or synthesis, or that in some other way broaden the scope of the discussion. Pre-plan secondary questions to ensure a high quality of understanding and presentation (preferably vetted by peers for this purpose), and thereby refreshing the discussion at a higher level. This allows students who understand the material to continue to demonstrate their knowledge, while those not yet at that level to learn from others through interaction. This relieves the instructor of the burden of constant teaching, and makes teaching another learning opportunity for top students (because one of the best ways to learn something is to teach it).
Phasing a threaded discussion with multiple questions keeps it interesting, and encourages steady student participation, although back-loaded responses are still possible.
Another way to spread participation is to break a large group of students down into sub-groups. You may subdivide a class of 15 into three groups, each given the same or complimentary questions to answer in parallel. Here, non-participation in a small group is much more noticeable than in a large group, and peer pressure may cause everyone to pull his or her load. An advantage to such a method is that it allows students to read the other groups’ discussions, and then comment on the differences as part of the assignment.
Another method individually assigns each discussion participant a specific aspect of a concept in which he or she specializes, in order to introduce, comment, or apply as a teaching tool for his or her peers. There is no hiding or delaying when everyone must comment, and the large amount of initial information is a rich larder from which to sustain the rest of the dialogue for the remainder of the discussion.
Know when to end a discussion
Knowing when to terminate a discussion is also important to ensure enthusiastic future participation. Usually a discussion will terminate on the date specified, but if the discourse meets its objective early with quality input, then the instructor can release the students with a pat on the back to attend to other aspects of their lives. Leaving a back door open for latecomers to add their thoughts is necessary, however, since the syllabus contract probably informs them that the time was available. An early termination, though, may emphasize to some recurring late participants that a threaded discussion runs longer than just the last day it is scheduled. You may also extend discussions, if required to establish knowledge needed later in the course. Such an extension should avoid other class work and non-course conflicts, and may need student concurrence if extending beyond established contact hours.
