In my first iteration of discussion boards, I approached as a way to replace in-person discussions taking place in the classroom. The problem is, these differ in many ways – a classroom discussion is usually teacher led or guided, and a written discussion board tends to be student dominated. An additional challenge with discussion boards is that they are asynchronous and they don’t involve the same types of communication strategies that actual in-person discussions employ, such as false starts, repetitions, utterance fillers, and other persuasive discourse strategies common in real-time synchronous conversations. When considering incorporating discussion boards in a course design, there are a few considerations to take into account, such as the following:

Is the other person necessary?

When conceptualizing a discussion board, the first consideration to make is whether or not another person’s participation is actually needed to carry out the task. I'm sure we've all seen discussion boards that are simply written homework assignments masked as discussions. Oftentimes we see posts that mimic simple answers, without the need to reply, with the exception of providing affirmation to its validity (i.e., good point, I agree). This, however, tends not to further the discussion because the discussion simply looks done. I often get around this by separating the class into smaller groups and making each of these smaller groups responsible for two different questions. Individually, these students respond to the prompt and then I respond to their group as a whole. The role of the other students is now to listen to, or read, the original posts, my responses, and then post some sort of aresponse of their own. By approaching it this way, it truly does mimic a discussion that takes place in class that is teacher led.

Modality: Pure text or mixed media

We are now able to approach discussion boards from a multimedia-centered approach given that we have the tools available. One way to do this is to have students respond in audio-visual formats by posting a video responding to the questions. And in response to these videos, I myself provide a video response to their posts. My experience with using videos is that students are much more likely to engage in demonstrating developing knowledge of the concepts or constructs in the course rather than a publishable product. In this sense, we can see learning take place in real time while at the same time, lowering the stakes for students.

Establish a multi-step approach

Establishing a multi-step approach to discussion boards might be a way to guide students through the assignment leading them to the related learning outcomes. For example, we break the discussion board assignment down into workable steps, such as Step 1: Choose one of the four following sets of three questions to address related to the reading. Step 2: Record your responses using the video function (or write your answers). Step 3: Listen to your instructor’s response. Step 4: Watch someone else’s video post addressing a different question set and the instructor’s response and provide a response of your own. In Step 3, I ask questions for the group for them to address in their response. This obligates other groups to watch their classmates’ video discussion boards as well as my posts for content. This can be done with written posts, video posts, or a combination of both.

Weighing out grading vs for credit

Discussion boards in online courses tend to constitute a large percentage of the student's grade. Let’s consider the negative effect this might have on students’ participation and risk taking in the discussions – if they know they are graded based on content and accuracy, this can be intimidating for students’ and consequently limit their interaction in the discussion boards. This would be likened to scoring their quality of interaction in the classroom. Let's imagine an alternative to high stakes assessment and score the discussion boards on a simple credit or non-credit basis, or with a rubric that recognizes knowledge development during learning. This approach might allow students to take more risks and express their perceptions, doubts, and all around feel more comfortable posting in an online forum for others to read. I often times use the discussion boards as a way to create opportunities for students to express the things that they don't understand, rather than a way to score them on what they demonstrate they do understand.

All in all, the end goal is to arrive at a level of mastery, or proficiency of the material and oftentimes this takes place through asking questions and seeking clarification. Providing students with opportunities to engage in the learning process through low-stakes discussions emphasizing formative learning over summative, might lower their inhibitions and raise learning outcomes.