Facilitating Meaningful Online Discussions | Ohio College Teaching Consortium

This resource on facilitating meaningful online discussions was written and compiled by Mandy Olejnik, Ph.D., Assistant Director of Howe Writing Across the Curriculum at Miami University (Ohio).

Table Of Contents

Introduction to Facilitating Meaningful Online Discussions
First: Why Use Online Discussions?
Strategies for Implementing Online Discussions
Further Reading

Introduction to Facilitating Meaningful Online Discussions

Online discussions can be a generative way to help students engage with one another over course content, especially for online course contexts (although also applicable to in-person courses). Research shows that students benefit from social interactions in the classroom and out (Ambrose et al., 2011; Bean & Melzer, 2021). In this resource, we provide recommendations on how to facilitate effective online discussions, drawing from various articles and sources (included at the end for you to view as further reading).

First: Why Use Online Discussions?

While online discussions are a good pedagogical practice, they can sometimes be used ineffectively in the classroom. Here are some important questions to keep in mind as you consider the role of online discussions in your course:

Why are you assigning online discussion boards or posts? What are your learning goals? Is this meant to promote meaningful communication and dialogue amongst students, or is it a place for students to demonstrate knowledge?
Should your discussion boards be high stakes or low stakes? Should they be graded for completion or by quality?
Do discussions have to be done as a full class or might it be better in small groups? Who has to look at / interact with the posts?

If you employ the use of online discussions because of routine or pattern and have a hard time answering the above questions, it may be beneficial for you to sketch out some ideas around them and determine if they are the most effective practice for your course content.

In the event that you do decide to either stick with online discussions or newly incorporate them into your course, here are some recommendations for doing so.

Strategies for Implementing Online Discussions

Have clear expectations.

As with any assignment, provide specific expectations for students. Explain in the assignment prompt how many discussions/posts students are expected to make (how many per week? semester?) as well as how long you expect them to be (one paragraph? no more than three?) and how they will be graded (completion? engagement with text? replying to peers?). Also clarify your own role: will you be participating? To what extent? What can students expect?

Sample: Educause discussion guidelines doc

Space out posts and replies.

It can be helpful to specify when you’d like students to post their own discussion and then contribute to their classmates’ (if you require this): for example, post by noon on Monday so everyone can read and respond before class starts on Wednesday (or whatever works for your class). Specifying and sticking to a schedule is helpful for students.

Allow time for students to adjust.

Your students likely have previous experiences with discussion boards, which were likely organized differently. Start your first discussion assignment as low-stakes to allow students to try out technology and learn more about the process. Their prior experiences are important and affect what they bring into your course. Feedback on the first few discussions are important, as you can help coach and steer students toward the kind of discussion you are looking for. After a few tries, students should adjust and become more comfortable and confident.

Use various types of response questions.

Even though it might take students a few tries to grow used to discussion posts in your course, repeating the same types of questions can become dull. Consider changing up the types of things you ask students to do in discussion: answering specific questions about the readings, reflecting on a personal life experience related to the readings, bringing in an outside artifact that relates to course content, synthesizing multiple sources together, etc. Variation is key not only for sustaining student interest but also in gauging effectiveness for different kinds of active learning.

Be open to different platforms.

Location is another important question relating to discuss boards: does it have to exist within the LMS your campus uses, or can it be hosted elsewhere? Can students start their own blog for the semester (sharing it with you and the class) and make weekly posts about the readings/content? Can they Tweet out thoughts and mark it with a class hashtag, like #ENG101AC? If your goal is to get students writing about the readings and interacting with each other’s ideas, you can do so in numerous ways—and can even ask them what they would prefer and what would be meaningful for them.

Offer flexible response options.

In the posts themselves (regardless of platform), do students have to respond with only written prose? Could they record themselves talking and upload a video/audio recording, design and share a concept map, upload YouTube videos relevant to course content, try to draw out and illustrate their ideas? Consider adding in your prompt/directions the different types of responses students can submit, as well as any restrictions (i.e., only x amount of non-written prose).

Consider providing discussion options.

You could also host a few different options for students’ discussions, such as posting on their blog (or another asynchronous medium) or offering “live” discussions where students can join a WebEx and discuss their ideas. They could choose which way to complete the discussion assignment.

Create open-ended questions you care about.

Asking open-ended questions to which you do not have an answer yourself can be a good way to spur insightful discussion, as students value the opportunity to think and be challenged. Studies show that students are most disillusioned with writing assignments when they feel too easy or like “busywork,” so keeping discussion questions thought-provoking and meaningful can help carry their motivation to participate.

Utilize discussion leaders.

Consider assigning one or two students to lead discussion each week, be it reading through everyone’s responses and posing further questions, responding to some common threads across posts, etc. With this option, keep in mind point one, though: be clear about what you expect. Students can sometimes plan more discussion activities or questions than time allotted, so be clear that you expect them to lead conversation for only 15 minutes, or that you only would like them to ask 2 questions to the whole class. And then hold them to that.

Don’t do too much.

While engaging, discussions can be a lot of work for both the students and yourself. Consider leaving the last couple weeks of the semester discussion-free, so that students can focus on final projects or leave feedback for one another instead. Less can be more, if you balance the amount of discussions with what you ultimately want students to achieve.

Introduction to Facilitating Meaningful Online Discussions

First: Why Use Online Discussions?

Strategies for Implementing Online Discussions

Further Reading