Research has shown that, just as with synchronous, in-class discussions,  asynchronous discussions facilitate many course goals [1]. In addition to clarifying the course content, and teaching higher-order thinking skills such as application, analysis, and synthesis, they are effective in promoting student involvement and active learning in classes. Students can interact with one another and develop a positive relationship with one another [3]. 

Good discussions allow students to be active in their own learning, which increases their motivation and makes the learning process more interesting. Moreover, discussions help students acquire better communication skills, as they learn to state and present their ideas clearly[1]. Good online discussions can further provide equitable and inclusive space [2] that allows all students to voice their opinions including the introverted ones. And lastly, they promote meaningful reflection on the topic and provide feedback about students’ acquisition of learning and the depth of their understanding.

To ensure your discussion boards (such as Canvas discussions, Yellowdig, and Harmonize) operate smoothly, and to maximize their benefits, here are a number of strategies that you can implement to help you foster meaningful conversations:

Be present but strategic about your participation

Try to take part in the discussion to guide the learning; you might post clarifying questions, clear up any misconception, probe for more details, or praise a positive contribution just as you would do in your in-person class. But be mindful of how frequently you post to the forum and how much time you spend interacting with students. Generally, you can post more often in early discussions of your course to model an effective response to students and draw their attention to the importance of effective participation. Later on, try to encourage them to interact more with each other, using your model. If you think you spend too much time interacting with students in the discussion forum, good time management strategies can help. A useful strategy is to block off times in your calendar each week to post to the discussion board. These can be short blocks of 20-30 minutes. Your goal is simply to be visible in the conversation so that students know you’re there to facilitate learning and engagement. For large classes, you might respond to a few students each week. Additionally, You might keep a spreadsheet of your responses and intentionally rotate which students you respond to each week to ensure you write to each student in your course at least once during the semester. If you use a tool such as Harmonize, that offers an engagement dashboard, the dashboard itself will provide information on which students you have engaged with least often, to guide your choice.

Craft good questions

The better the prompt, the better the discussion [2]. The research on this emphasizes the importance of using discussion questions to elicit a variety of perspectives in online forums. The best way to engage students in meaningful conversations is to ask open-ended questions that encourage interpretation, reflection, analysis, or problem solving, and avoid shallower questions with single answers. Students’ answers to those questions will be right or wrong, with no way to sustain a meaningful conversation. Questions don’t need to be sensitive or controversial to engage students, though. You may ask students to apply course concepts to a case or take a concept you’re teaching and ask students to post about where else they’ve seen or learned about it [2]. You might simply ask students to write about something they find naturally interesting such as their own experience. Using questions that connect to personal experiences can help students engage and learn from one another, but do be cautious of soliciting “interesting stories”--if that appears to be your goal, some students will feel pressured, possibly to the point of making things up if they don’t judge their own lives “interesting” enough!

Structure the discussion

 It is critical to include structure in your discussion prompts. Without a structure, students might post their responses and then never return to engage with the others, which does not lead to meaningful conversations. You likewise need to avoid prompts that provide no guidance on what a good response looks like or those prompts that provide guidance in terms of the word count only. It might be helpful also to provide a rubric or a checklist of criteria for success. Canvas provides a rubric tool that can also speed up the grading process, if you choose to use it (see How do I add a rubric to a graded discussion in Canvas?). Many instructors use the Canvas discussion options so that students post first before seeing replies to ensure original responses. However, using this setting can hinder less-confident students and raise barriers to their success[2] so give some thought to whether you can effectively encourage originality in other ways. 

Create authentic conversation

To avoid dry, formal discussions, try to foster the kind of natural dialogue that keeps students’ attention. Think about a good discussion that you have in your in-person class: you foster a flowin exchange to further student learning, without asking students to include citations or to say an initial thing then respond to 2 classmates’ comments. Try to foster this natural discussion rhythm in your online discussions as well. It might be helpful to take a cue from how your students regularly communicate on social media platforms and invite them to use emoji, GIFs, memes, videos, and the like in their discussion posts as well. For example, you may ask them to post a GIF that describes how they are feeling about a particular topic.
 

To learn more about using asynchronous discussions, or which tools best suit your class, please feel free to reach out to LSATSLearningTeachingConsultants@umich.edu or request a one-on-one consultation with one of the Learning and Teaching consultants.

References

1. Cashin, W. E. (2011). Effective classroom discussions. IDEA paper, 49, 1-5.
2. The Secret Weapon of Good Online Teaching: Discussion Forums (2020) - The Chronicle of Higher Education
3. How to Use Discussion Forums to Begin, Center, and Produce Student Writing (2021)- Faculty Focus