Fostering Student Engagement through Discussion Forums

Gina Siesing, Ph.D., Associate Director for Educational Technology

UIT Academic Technology

University Teaching Conference

12/12/07

Today’s 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

Discussion Tools at Tufts: Blackboard

Discussion Tools at Tufts: TUSK

Discussion Tools at Tufts: SparkForums

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

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)

• Who’s online / Private Messages (Spark, TUSK)

• Polling / Blog (TUSK)

A few examples for your consideration…

• what makes a discussion flop?

• what makes a discussion thrive?

• what’s the connection between online and face-to-face?

Fletcher Students, 1975, TDL

Example 1: Addressing Diversity Challenges

Example 2: Fostering Student Connections

Example 3: Linking between Online and FTF

How can you tell whether a discussion is “successful”?

?

How will the students know?

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

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 you’ll 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?

Hands-on oddities…

1. (Nearly) synchronous activities in a medium meant for asynchronous communication….

2. Having discussed the importance of instructional design, we move to the messiness of just-in-time experience….

Your First Assignment:

1. Log in to either Blackboard (blackboard.tufts.edu) or TUSK (tusk.tufts.edu).

2. Go to the “Fostering Student Engagement” course.

3. Go to the Discussions for the course.

4. Post one reply to the discussion board, “What forms of engagement are worth fostering?” No more than 2-3 sentences.

5. Next, read two of your peers’ responses and reply to at least one of these.

6. Report out on some of the responses you noticed in the forum.

We’re here to help with logistics!!

Your Second Assignment:

1. In either Blackboard or TUSK, go to the “Fostering Student Engagement - Instructors” course.

2. Go to the Discussion tool and add a new Discussion Forum designed to foster student engagement in whatever way you wish.

3. Invite two of your neighbors to participate for 5 minutes.

4. You’ll also be participating in their newly created discussions.

5. What did you notice?

6. What would you modify to meet your goals for actual students?

We’re here to help with logistics!!

Reflections on Approaches that Work…

And thoughts about how you can foster meaningful engagement without investing inordinate amounts of time…

Resources and Next Steps:

Blackboard:

• http://blackboard.tufts.edu

• Blackboard Help: http://ase.tufts.edu/its/blackboard/guide.htm

• Neal Hirsig, Assistant Director for Instructional Services, ITS

• neal.hirsig@tufts.edu

Resources and Next Steps:

TUSK:

• http://tusk.tufts.edu

• TUSK Help: http://tusk.tufts.edu/view/course/HSDB/1185

• Susan Albright, Director, TUSK

• tusk@tufts.edu

Resources and Next Steps:

Spark:

• http://spark.uit.tufts.edu

• Spark Support Web Site: http://go.tufts.edu/sparksupport

• David Grogan, Manager, Curricular Technology Group, UIT

• david.grogan@tufts.edu

Resources and Next Steps:

Consultation about instructional goals and approaches:

• UIT Academic Technology, uit-tlr@tufts.edu, 7-2451

• UIT Encyclopedia for Teaching with Technology