Getting students active in online discussions

[Hegemony]

You have to make them count for points. On mine, I give a maximum of 4 points for the initial post (due by Thursday of a week-long discussion) and two responses to others' posts are maximum 2 points each (due by Sunday).

[nonsensical]

Also, I am confused about the negative response to students who post at the last minute. If they're doing that they're still meeting the requirements of the assignment, which is to post by X time, right? If you'd like them to post earlier you could move the deadline to be earlier, but it doesn't make sense to me to give students a deadline and then get upset that they are posting before that cut-off point.

It's a problem when students do all their posting in a short space of time -- an hour. It's also a problem if students don't leave any time for other students to reply to their comments. So posts at the last minute should be the final contributions to the conversation, not attempts to have a monologue

In that case, could the class be divided into groups as Morden suggests, with each group having a different deadline? For instance, for the first assignment, Group #1's deadline is Tuesday by noon, Group #2's deadline is Wednesday by noon, and Group #3's deadline is Thursday by noon. For the second assignment, Group #1's deadline is Wednesday by noon, Group #2's deadline is Thursday by noon, and Group #3's deadline is Tuesday by noon. That staggers the responses a bit and creates some fairness in terms of how many times each student has to post early.

[downer]

Also, I am confused about the negative response to students who post at the last minute. If they're doing that they're still meeting the requirements of the assignment, which is to post by X time, right? If you'd like them to post earlier you could move the deadline to be earlier, but it doesn't make sense to me to give students a deadline and then get upset that they are posting before that cut-off point.

It's a problem when students do all their posting in a short space of time -- an hour. It's also a problem if students don't leave any time for other students to reply to their comments. So posts at the last minute should be the final contributions to the conversation, not attempts to have a monologue

In that case, could the class be divided into groups as Morden suggests, with each group having a different deadline? For instance, for the first assignment, Group #1's deadline is Tuesday by noon, Group #2's deadline is Wednesday by noon, and Group #3's deadline is Thursday by noon. For the second assignment, Group #1's deadline is Wednesday by noon, Group #2's deadline is Thursday by noon, and Group #3's deadline is Tuesday by noon. That staggers the responses a bit and creates some fairness in terms of how many times each student has to post early.

It sounds possible. It also sounds like it would require a great deal of organization and students would say they got confused about deadlines. But maybe worth trying.

[Charlotte]

Thank you all for your responses! You've had some great ideas and also thought provoking responses. I apologize for not responding sooner and to individual posts. This is my first semester as a full time instructor and I'm still struggling to balance my new job responsibilities. It has been getting more difficult lately to keep all the balls juggling in the air successfully. 😞

[sinenomine]

Both my classes for Spring incorporate problem-based learning strategies, which I find tend to engage students well. In many of the discussions, I ask them to go on what I call "virtual field trips" to find something related to the topic we're covering that week, and show and comment on it in their initial posting. Then they're required to comment on at least one classmate's initial posting, although most of them comment in more than one. (I also enable the thumbs-up "liking" function in Canvas for this, which they seem to enjoy.) Many of them remark in the course evaluations how much they enjoy this aspect of the class.

[darkstarrynight]

I have taught online asynchronous classes for a long time. Here are some things I have found to be helpful:

• Every Sunday, I send a weekly email with what is coming up in the week. This includes all course materials with a short description of each one so everyone gets a preview, including additional materials that are not required for reading but allow students to go deeper into topics of interest. I also review all deadlines.
• I make sure all discussion board prompts are very much connected to the readings so students can reference these, but I encourage that they share their opinions, reactions, and experiences, even if from adjacent topics/areas in their lives.
• Throughout the time the board is open, I join the students in discussion, trying not to respond to everyone first so other students can interact with each other. My goal is to add content since there are no recorded lectures for my regular online course. This is my way of sharing knowledge and experiences, and I consistently get positive feedback from my involvement on the board in my teaching evaluations.
• Sometimes I share additional resources in response to certain students in discussion if the conversation focuses on something. I introduce my own research when relevant, so students understand that my teaching and research inform each other.
• I give very detailed feedback on each student's discussions when I grade. Students are aware that I am reading their posts and often respond with comments to me about the topics outside of the board, after it closes.
• Occasionally, I host optional zoom meetings for students to drop in for casual conversation about our course topics and to answer questions about assignments. This is really fun for me to see students talk with each other about course topics on video when they otherwise would have no contact with each other outside of discussion boards (I teach this course for a fully online graduate program with students around the world, but mostly in the U.S. and Canada).