Discussion Forums 101

Discussions Forums Do you often have students discuss opinions on topics in groups? Do you ever use thinkpair-share activities, info gap exercises, debates, role plays, jigsaws, fishbowls, or piece the puzzle? Do you use show and share activities or presentations? Do you struggle with how to encourage participation? Have you ever considered discussion forums?

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A discussion forum is an asynchronous online message board, sometimes called a newsgroup or bulletin board, usually moderated by the organizer. One posts thoughts on a topic and others respond. A thread refers to the responses or posts to the same topic. It is a best practice to change the subject line when adding a new thread to a topic. The forum date and time stamps each post in a treelike structure.

There are limiters such as restricting posting, editing, or deleting posts as well as posting anonymously. Usually the professor posts a topic and the students post threads. However, in an open forum, the professor and the students can post new topics and threads. In a closed forum, only the professor can post a topic and the student can only add threads.

Although the professor usually moderates, students, or even guests, can take turns moderating.

Variations Listserv. A listserv is an electronic mailing list that sends user updates via email. Rather than logging into a discussion forum to post and view threaded topics, posts are sent through email to members of a group. Members subscribe to the group. Although the listserv date and time stamps the email sent out, it lacks the threaded organization of a discussion forum. The emails often target only specific users, so the conversation can branch off into smaller exclusive email discussions between intended members; likewise, members may feel inundated with too many emails, especially ones accidentally sent to the whole membership when meant for an independent conversation.

Examples Use your imagination. What could your students discuss in an online forum? What would be an appropriate activity for your discipline? Only you know what would be authentic to your field of study, your curriculum, and your students. To get started, consider these ideas: Visual Arts •Peer critique •Gallery exhibit •Art history timeline •Aesthetics debate Health & Community Studies •Interview role plays •Poster session •Social policy review 147

•Health ethics debate Science & Technology •Science fair •Laboratory techniques analysis •Environmental ethics debate •Science versus science fiction debate Business Administration •Case scenario role plays •Trade fair •Market segment analysis •Business ethics debate Humanities & Social Sciences •Blog •Poetry anthology •Book review •Censorship Debate

Merits Discussion forums can build a sense of community and a social presence. When used appropriately, discussion forums can promote critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication skills. While discussion forums primarily target linguistic learners, with the many multimedia features available, we can engage a variety of learner types and abilities.

Although professors usually moderate a discussion forum, students, or even guests, can take turns moderating as well. We can construct a large full class discussion or create smaller group forums.

Moderating. When moderating, use facilitation techniques that foster higher order thinking.

Use questions to prompt, probe, clarify, or elaborate on a post. Communicate agreement with a post to keep the thread on topic. Encourage students to provide an example or explanation to elaborate on or clarify a post. Avoid challenging a post as the author may feel offended (Lim, Cheung, & Hew, 2011); instead, use strength-based questions to guide the post back on topic.

High Order Thinking. We can use individual, pair, and group work activities in discussion forums to generate meaningful discussion that encourages inquiry, reflection, critical 148

thinking, creativity, collaboration, and language skills. Besides a simple post, we can use journalling for reflection and virtual fairs to feature student work. Through debates and role plays we can encourage critical thinking (Darabi et al, 2011). Piece the puzzle and jigsaw activities encourage collaborate learning (Weidman & Bishop, 2009). Fishbowl activities encourage critical thinking (Miller & Benz, 2008).

Social Presence. In an online class, building a sense of community is extremely important.

Students who feel isolated and disconnected may drop out. Likewise, in a massive face-toface (F2F) class, students may not have the opportunity to contribute to discussions during class time. Others, even in a small class size, may be shy or lack confidence to participate in class. Using discussion forums, is a way to build social presence (Lloyd, 2011). It gives students an opportunity to participate in discussion, reflect on others’ opinions, and learn at their own pace (CAST, 2012; Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek).

Accessibility. Discussion forums primarily appeal to linguistic learners (Gardner, 2011), Some learning management systems (LMS) or discussion forums have audio capture as well as the ability to upload or embed media. This will appeal to students with an oral/aural or visual need or preference (CAST, 2012; Gardner, 2011) and to English as a Second Language (ESL) learners for peer dictation or dictagloss to practice speaking and listening skills. For longer posts or assignments, students could record a podcast and post a link to it in the discussion forum. Asynchronous discussion also meets the needs of the adult online learner who may prefer any time, any place, and any pace (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012).

Challenges Unfortunately, many educators equate online learning with simple discussion forums. Yet, there are many ways to engage learners online. If a discussion forum is appropriate to the curriculum, make sure to target higher order thinking. Be cognizant of workload for yourself and your students. Lastly, review proper Netiquette in discussion forums to foster a sense of community.

Low Order Thinking. Avoid facilitation techniques that only target low order thinking.

Simply answering structured questions does not yield higher order thinking (Darabi, Arrastia, Nelson, Cornille, & Liang, 2011). Simple closed questions may trigger the same boring and repetitious answers post after post. Likewise, summarizing, inviting feedback, or making connections to research only targets mid to low order thinking. Use the forum for creative critical discussion rather than for a homework check.

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Workload. Take into account workload for both students and professors. Put limits on the number of discussion forums and the number and length of posts. Be strategic with when, where, and how many discussion forums to include in your curriculum. In a large class consider placing students in smaller discussion groups or work spaces, in particular, for think-pair-share activities. The more forums and the more posts you require, the more you will need to grade and provide feedback for.

Netiquette. Encourage positive respectful interactions amongst students. Set standards for language use: profanity, chat lingo, emoticons, informal language, formal language. Instill no tolerance for bullying and flaming (angry post wars); it is okay to lurk (read posts without participating) but not to troll (instigate flame wars). Remind students that sarcasm does not translate well without facial and visual cues. Limit the length and number of posts to respect time and space; to make it easier for the reader to skim the topic, encourage students to post a new subject line when adding a new thread to a topic (Shea, 2004).

Instructional Design Use a backwards design approach. First, start with your learning outcomes. Second, create your assessments. Third, plan your instructional activities. Finally, choose a technology to enhance the lesson.

Design. Consider your curriculum; look carefully at your accreditation standards, graduate attributes, program learning outcomes, course learning outcomes, and lesson learning outcomes. How will a discussion forum enhance the learning outcomes? How will you evaluate what the students post in the forum? What technologies will you and your students need to learn in order to participate in the forum? Will a discussion forum enhance the learning experience?

Develop. Review the discussion forum features in the learning management system (LMS).

Alternatively, browse the Internet for discussion forum software like VoiceThread. You may want to use social media blogs like Facebook or Twitter. Similarly, you may want to use the comments features in virtual pinning sites like Pinterest for visual discussions. In the same way, you many want to use the comments features on video and podcast sharing sites like YouTube, Vimeo, iTunes.

Deliver. Decide what students will do before, during, and after the discussion forum. Before the discussion forum, you may ask the students to read a chapter, watch a film, or conduct

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research. In the discussion forum, you may have guided questions or activity criteria for students to follow. After the discussion, you may require that students incorporate insights from the discussion forum in a paper, poster, or podcast. The discussion forum should be authentic, active, and applied.

VoiceThread

Twitter Discussion Forums

Plan how your students will engage in a discussion forum individually, in pairs, or in small groups. You may want to use a forum simply for discussion, journalling, or showcasing. On the other hand, you may want to use it for collaborating using a jigsaw, fishbowl, or piece the puzzle.

Still you may want to use a forum for debates or role plays.

You might include an introduction (icebreaker) cafĂŠ forum or muddy point forum.

Technology There are many online discussion forums. VoiceThread is an audio discussion forum. We can use social media micro-blogging sites like Facebook Forum for Pages and Twitter Discussion Forums. Most learning management systems (LMS) have a discussion forum tool. Further, many websites, magazines, and newspapers have opinion forums that students can participate in.

References Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST). (2012). Universal Design for Learning.

Retrieved from http://www.cast.org/index.html Darabi, A., Arrastia, M.C., Nelson, D.W., Cornille, T., & Liang, X. (2011). Cognitive presence in asynchronous online learning: A comparison of four discussion strategies. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 27(3), p.216-227.

Gardner, H. (2011). Frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Basic Books.

Lim, S., Cheung, W., & Hew K. (2011). Thinking in asynchronous online discussion: An investigation of student facilitation techniques. New Horizons in Education, 59(1), p.52-65.

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Lloyd, M. (2011). The tale of six fish: Achieving social presence through discussion forums in an offline learning environment. Journal of Learning Design, 4(2), p.39-51.

Miller, R.L. & Benz, J.J. (2008). Techniques for encouraging peer collaboration: Online threaded discussion or fishbowl interaction. Instructional Technology, 35(1), p.87-93.

Shea, V. (2004). Netiquette. Retrieved from http://www.albion.com/netiquette/book/ index.html Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Weidman, R. & Bishop, M.J. (2009). Using the jigsaw model to facilitate cooperative learning in an online course. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 10(1), p.51-64.

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