24 Discussion Strategies And Activities For The Classroom

Like a private voice mailbox that you set up with just one person or a group (but SOOOO much easier), Voxer allows users to have conversations at whatever time is most convenient for each participant. Voxer is also invaluable for collaborating on projects and for having one-on-one discussions with students, parents, and your own colleagues. Like many other educators, Peter DeWitt took a while to really understand the potential of Voxer, but in this EdWeek piece, he explains what turned him around. Sometimes the best way to get online learners involved is by giving them a choice. Certain individuals may not want to discuss their opinions or share ideas with the group.

As a result, students build confidence in their thinking and are more likely to share their ideas during whole-class discussions. Many of us have experienced the challenge of students not engaging substantively in discussions, whether they are face-to-face or online. To provide the scaffolding needed for our students to be successful, we can use Gilly Salmon’s Five-Stage Model. In this scaffolded approach, we must first teach our students the technology and our expectations for participating in the online discussions, while also ensuring that our students feel welcomed and encouraged to participate. From there, they will start building community by posting and responding to each other.

Next come the low-prep strategies, which can be used on the fly when you have a few extra minutes or just want your students to get more active. Note that these are not strict categories; it’s certainly possible to simplify or add more meat to any of these structures and still make them work. These are smaller techniques that can be integrated with other instructional strategies and don’t really stand alone.

• Conversely, in problem-based classrooms, instructors present an issue or pose a problem, necessary information and sources are identified to work through the issue, and finally learning is reinforced through application.
• Essential Questions are questions that guide units of study and illicit genuine curiosity and further inquiry from students (check out this blog post for a head start or her course to learn more!).
• Even basic expectations such as self-muting can make virtual discussions go much more smoothly.

Panel Discussions

It’s useful to name the awkwardness as well as our own misgivings. Allowing space for students to work through their own thoughts and feelings about virtual discussion as a sort of meta-exercise also communicates that you value student input and a collaborative learning environment. 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. First, he taught new content asynchronously through recorded videos and online activities. At the start of his live class, students briefly summarized the concepts they had learned together and then divided into breakout rooms to solve related problems in small groups.

If you’re looking for a way to facilitate and keep track of small group discussions, Shana Ramin from Hello, Teacher Lady recommends using Google Slides as a collaborative note catcher. Discussion is about hearing what others have to say and working to shape and re-shape your own thoughts and perspectives. Different perspectives can further everyone’s understanding of the issue or concept being discussed—they represent opportunities for learning. Dr. Annie Prud’homme-Généreux is the director of continuing studies at Capilano University. She is a past recipient of the National Association of Biology Teachers’ Four-Year College/University Teaching Innovation Award.

In the traditional classroom, instructors can guide discussions in real time, taking their cues from what their students are thinking and feeling. You pose a question that you hope will help your students think more deeply about the course material. In an online discussion, the prompt has a ripple effect, resonating more deeply both because it’s in written form and because students engage with the question for a longer period of time. Every forum, blog, and social media post should focus on a specific topic. Secondly, it makes it easy for online learners to respond or leave their eLearning feedback.

Model the style and tone you want your students to use in their postings. This same forum can be used later during the course for students to post messages of interest that may not be directly related to the weekly class discussions. 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.

Encourage Thoughtful Engagement

Facilitating meaningful online discussions requires a combination of structured engagement strategies, robust technology, and continuous analytics. Whether managing a professional network, educational forum, or brand community, the goal is to foster valuable conversations that drive learning, collaboration, and growth. Online discussions have become a core component of digital learning, professional communities, and brand engagement. However, facilitating meaningful discussions in online spaces presents unique challenges, including maintaining engagement, fostering inclusivity, and ensuring constructive dialogue.

You’re So Close To More Vibrant And Inclusive Discussions In Your Courses

Or, you can assign a discussion board after a chapter of reading homework and let students learn from each other before you fill in the gaps during a whole-class discussion the following day. In this five-part article series, we look at ideas for structuring an online https://asiavibe8.wordpress.com/ discussion. To translate this online, Marangell divided his students into groups online and created shared Google docs—or a series of Google slides—for the prompts/questions.

Templates and discussion stems (e.g., Graff and Birkenstein’s They Say, I Say) help students find context for their ideas in relation to others. If discussion activities would benefit from written instructions, provide them in easy-to-access ways, especially if you’re using small groups. It’s important to acknowledge these considerations and discuss expectations for video participation with students, especially if it feels integral to your pedagogy (Davidson 2020). Find other ways to assess engagement such as polling questions or breakout activities.

With the right strategies and tools, online discussions can promote critical thinking, collaboration, and a sense of community. Padlet is another tech platform teachers can use to hold silent discussions. Students can synchronously or asynchronously post original ideas in response to discussion questions in grid, timeline, map, wall, column, and other arrangements. One of the best parts is that students can post links to related articles or videos and original photographs they’ve taken. Plus, they can build on their peer’s posts to create an ongoing conversation. If students and teachers know how to use technology to make discussions efficient and effective, they can be just what you need to host meaningful class conversations across settings.

Groups like these may have a shorter shelf life, but they can be useful, especially early on in the term when new terms, concepts, or ideas are being introduced. If the skills or content are initially too challenging for students to tackle head-on, lead a synchronous session and then task the teams with crafting challenge questions for their peers. Regularly reviewing these analytics will help refine discussion strategies for maximum engagement. 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.

Forums that require students to track down sources, analyze and offer different perspectives, and apply concepts to scenarios should be the objective. Having asynchronous online discussions can be a benefit to teachers and students alike in any of those situations, and today’s column will explain the do’s and don’t’s of how to do it effectively. Ask a different online learner to co-host the online discussion with you each week.

Also, note whether your instructor wants you to include references and, if so, how many. Provide a rubric or other evaluation tool that details the evaluation process. When students know exactly how they will be evaluated they tend to live up to those expectations. Evaluation tools help foster effective discussion by decreasing student anxiety and defensiveness. A good and preferred teaching strategy is providing opportunities for application of new information to students’ personal and professional lives. Discussion questions of this character can also allow everyone to demonstrate what they know and let others learn from them.