Fostering Student Engagement through Discussion Forums

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Fostering Student Engagement through Discussion
Forums

• Gina Siesing, Ph.D., Associate Director for
  Educational Technology
• UIT Academic Technology
• University Teaching Conference
• 12/12/07

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Todays workshop will offer

• An Overview of Discussion Tools Available at
  Tufts
• Examples to Frame Exploration
• Exploration of Individual Goals around
  Engagement
• Suggestions for Enabling Effective Discussions
• Hands-on Practice with Blackboard/TUSK
• Reflections on What Works for Particular Contexts
• Resources and Next Steps

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Discussion Tools at Tufts Blackboard
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Discussion Tools at Tufts TUSK
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Discussion Tools at Tufts SparkForums
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Discussion Forum Terminology
Blackboard ? TUSK ? Spark ?
Discussion Board ? Discussions/Discussion ?Boards/Forums SparkForums ?
Add Forum ? New Discussion ? Create New Forum ?
Add Thread ? Add Topic ? New Topic ?
Initial Post and Replies Initial Post and Replies Initial Post and Replies
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Special Discussion Tool Features

• Attachments and Links (all)
• Watching/Subscribing to Forum (all)
• Flags - New/Recent, Sticky, etc. (all)
• Groups (all)
• Search (all)
• Aggregation - Collect, Sort, Print (Blackboard)
• Embedding images (Spark, TUSK)
• Avatars (Spark, TUSK)
• Whos online / Private Messages (Spark, TUSK)
• Polling / Blog (TUSK)

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A few examples for your consideration

• what makes a discussion flop?
• what makes a discussion thrive?
• whats the connection between online and
  face-to-face?

Fletcher Students, 1975, TDL
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Example 1 Addressing Diversity Challenges
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Example 2 Fostering Student Connections
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Example 3 Linking between Online and FTF
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How can you tell whether a discussion is
successful??How will the students know?
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First, articulate your particular goal for the
forum
To foster students' engagement with course
material To facilitate their connection with
fellow students To create opportunities for
reflective thinking To enable discussion of
challenging topics MAKE A NOTE OF YOUR
SPECIFIC GOAL
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Based on your goals, build your assignment

• BROAD PARAMETERS
• required or optional?
• credit or no credit?
• FRAMING THE ASSIGNMENT
• where is the assignment published?
• specific roles youll play / specific roles for
  students?
• relation between online discussion and ftf
  interactions?
• ensuring students back up their work locally
• SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS
• original posts/replies to others?
• genre and length of posts?
• time frames for posting, reading, replying?

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Hands-on oddities

• (Nearly) synchronous activities in a medium meant
  for asynchronous communication.
• Having discussed the importance of instructional
  design, we move to the messiness of just-in-time
  experience.

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Your First Assignment

• Log in to either Blackboard (blackboard.tufts.edu
  ) or TUSK (tusk.tufts.edu).
• Go to the Fostering Student Engagement course.
• Go to the Discussions for the course.
• Post one reply to the discussion board, What
  forms of engagement are worth fostering? No more
  than 2-3 sentences.
• Next, read two of your peers responses and
  reply to at least one of these.
• Report out on some of the responses you noticed
  in the forum.
• Were here to help with logistics!!

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Your Second Assignment

• In either Blackboard or TUSK, go to the
  Fostering Student Engagement - Instructors
  course.
• Go to the Discussion tool and add a new
  Discussion Forum designed to foster student
  engagement in whatever way you wish.
• Invite two of your neighbors to participate for
  5 minutes.
• Youll also be participating in their newly
  created discussions.
• What did you notice?
• What would you modify to meet your goals for
  actual students?
• Were here to help with logistics!!

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Reflections on Approaches that Work

And thoughts about how you can foster meaningful
engagement without investing inordinate amounts
of time
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Resources and Next Steps

• Blackboard
• http//blackboard.tufts.edu
• Blackboard Help http//ase.tufts.edu/its/blackbo
  ard/guide.htm
• Neal Hirsig, Assistant Director for
  Instructional Services, ITS
• neal.hirsig_at_tufts.edu

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Resources and Next Steps

• TUSK
• http//tusk.tufts.edu
• TUSK Help http//tusk.tufts.edu/view/course/HSDB
  /1185
• Susan Albright, Director, TUSK
• tusk_at_tufts.edu

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Resources and Next Steps

• Spark
• http//spark.uit.tufts.edu
• Spark Support Web Site http//go.tufts.edu/spark
  support
• David Grogan, Manager, Curricular Technology
  Group, UIT
• david.grogan_at_tufts.edu

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Resources and Next Steps

• Consultation about instructional goals and
  approaches
• UIT Academic Technology, uit-tlr_at_tufts.edu,
  7-2451
• UIT Encyclopedia for Teaching with Technology