Preface
O
nline education went mainstream years ago. According to the Department of Education, more than 5 million college students took an online course in 2012. Approximately half of these students were enrolled fully in online programs. The vast majority of academic leaders believe that distance learning is critical for the long-term strategies of higher education. Although online education is on the rise, and has been for some time, online teaching pedagogies are trailing behind the technology. Many universities have been reluctant to adopt new pedagogical approaches that are better suited for online learning and for engaging students born in the digital age. This guidebook is designed to help address this concern. We have learned from years of teaching online courses, collaborating with online instructors, and working with professionals trained in educational technology that online courses work best when they are interactive. Although students can set their own pace and work independently, online courses are most productive when the instructor is able to facilitate interactivity between students. One of the best ways to advance interactivity is by incorporating student-facilitated discussions for collaborative learning. Our particular approach advances student-facilitated discussions, in an asynchronous text-based format where students learn how to lead their own collaborative discussion groups in the discovery of the course subject matter. There are two editions of this guidebook: an instructor edition and a student edition. The instructor edition includes suggestions for designing the online discussion and guidelines for managing the day-to-day interactions with student facilitators and discussants. It also provides multiple ready-to-apply resources, such as example assignments and grading rubrics. The student edition offers direct guidance on becoming discussion facilitators and good discussion participants. It outlines the day-to-day work of facilitation and discussion participation, offering many illustrative examples along the way. Both editions of our guidebook provide links to an interactive web application, the IF Wiki, where readers can share their resources, strategies, rubrics, syllabi, and addition material for a continued collaborative experience around online courses that advance the discussion. To this end, users of this guidebook are not passive readers, but active collaborators working together to build a network of educators interested in improving online pedagogy. These guidebooks reflect and build upon the work of the Interactivity Foundation (IF), a not-for-profit organization with the dual mission of advancing student-empowered learning and improving nationwide public discussions. We hope this guidebook is helpful to those teaching, learning, and discussing online.
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The Guidebook for Student-Facilitated Discussion in Online Courses: Student Edition