Introduction video by Batholomew Kimani

Photo by Diego PH on Unsplash

Many people think of discussions as the stuff in English 101 or other general education cousres. "Discuss what you learned from our readings on Piaget this week" or "How did the video on White Privilege" make you feel?" To be clear, there's nothing wrong with the previous discussion questions, but if you teach a Facilities and Maintenance class or run Financial Assistance seminars, these models aren't very practical.

You can use the discussion board for a LOT more than spit some knowledge back to me type questions. You've already seen one example in this class, where the discussion board is used as a venue to ask questions you might not feel comfortable asking in front of the class (as a side benefit, it lets me gauge the temperature of the class, and it lets us gather questions as the class progresses). Some other great uses:

1) Problem/Scenario of the week:

Give them a real-life scenario and give them the week to work on it. Best case if it is open-ended with no clear solutions. Make their answers due on Friday and then make them post feedback on their classmates' solutions over the weekend. Will it work? Why or why not?

2) Multimedia Discussion.

Post a video or photo. Have students take a photo or shoot a video and post it in response.

3) Muddiest Point:

Asking students what they are still a little confused on. This shows that you expect some confusion, and are ready to guide students through it. It can solve a lot of problems sooner rather than later, and students can help each other as well.

4) What worked/didn't work.

A quick and dirty feedback device. Rather than wait until the formal evaluation at the end of the quarter, simply ask students what worked and what didn't work this work. Give 'em 5 points and the promise of no retribution and bring some extra thick skin :) You might get some really good feedback. You might be surprised that a lot of it might even be positive

5) Help me!

Leave this one up for the quarter. Allow students to post and ask for help, either on classwork, or better yet, on real-life problems (hopefully somewhat professional and not on which Tinder profile they should swipe right on). For example, I ran a job search class and strongly encouraged participants to post difficulties they ran into: tough job interview questions, screeners, job application difficulties, and solicit advice. I monitored the discussion in case I needed to leap in, but the advice of peers carried more weight in some cases.

5) Explore our Curriculum Repository

Our shared curriculum repository is full of discussion and assignment ideas: rtc.edu/canvasequity