From class last week, I wanted to spend time on the use of discussion board in an online course. This video highlights four points on how students can use the medium of discussion board to create community and engage students in the course. I firmly believe that discussion board are great for the students to share ideas about a topic and more in-depth learning for the students. I have had professors in the past that required discussion board as a separate category as well as participation for the students. On the other hand, I like how the discussion board creates a small sense of community and a more engaging piece where you can see ideas and thoughts in different perspectives.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Week 6 - The Virtual World
On the internet skills test, I scored 92% on the assessment and missed the question about ISP. I should have known this term, since my professor in another course recently asked the class to define the term.
From class last week, I wanted to spend time on the use of discussion board in an online course. This video highlights four points on how students can use the medium of discussion board to create community and engage students in the course. I firmly believe that discussion board are great for the students to share ideas about a topic and more in-depth learning for the students. I have had professors in the past that required discussion board as a separate category as well as participation for the students. On the other hand, I like how the discussion board creates a small sense of community and a more engaging piece where you can see ideas and thoughts in different perspectives.
Teaching Online Discussions
From class last week, I wanted to spend time on the use of discussion board in an online course. This video highlights four points on how students can use the medium of discussion board to create community and engage students in the course. I firmly believe that discussion board are great for the students to share ideas about a topic and more in-depth learning for the students. I have had professors in the past that required discussion board as a separate category as well as participation for the students. On the other hand, I like how the discussion board creates a small sense of community and a more engaging piece where you can see ideas and thoughts in different perspectives.
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Eric, I enjoyed this video very much. I agree that often students participating in a discussion board don't really ever understand how the conversations they are participating in relate to the overall subject matter. I liked this instructor's idea of students reading each other's papers and voting on them on the discussion board. I also agree that a discussion board can be very limiting (and boring) if you don't work to include other sites and information. GIving credit for participation on other sites is a good way to encourage students to expand their learning. Thanks for sharing this.
ReplyDeleteInteresting video, Eric. Thanks for posting. I often question whether discussion boards are engaging as well. The instructor of the video presented some great points as well.
ReplyDeleteJennifier, the video breaks it down the barriers of discussion boards and the positive usage for this tool on the online course
DeleteI took a few distance learning courses years ago, before broadband was avaliable in our northern communities. The course was conducted entirely through email and weekly teleconferences. We were a small group and formed a strong sense of community even though most of us never met the rest of the participants in person. Our final teleconference of the course had us all lingering on the line, reluctant to say goodbye and hang up on the community we had become.
ReplyDeleteLater, courses moved online. I was disappointed to learn that teleconferences would be infrequent now that we were using WebCT and later Moodle. To my surprise, the discussion forums (fora?) created that same sense of community and reluctance to disband.
We were all in the courses by choice, all of us working full-time jobs, so perhaps the engagement and maturity of the participants was not typical of the undergrad experience. Still, I can testify from experience that discussion forums can be the basis for forming a very strong sense of a learning community. In one course, the instructor was absent a lot because of health and family. We students provided the main support for each other during the instructor's silences.
Support is critical and the discussion board provide that opportunity for students to connect and understand the each other perspectives while doing the coursework.
DeleteI think these are excellent points, Eric. I'm having to rethink my views of discussion boards. Perhaps they aren't so bad after all? They do allow for a central medium for discussion that's easy to find and use and so that it's easy to keep up with the conversation...and to advance the conversation.
ReplyDeleteI think the discussion boards are there and can be resources for students to talk about the class instead using email. You can keep a running thread about the unit/topic of discussion. In a sense, discussion board can be like blogging for a class
DeleteI think the discussion boards are there and can be resources for students to talk about the class instead using email. You can keep a running thread about the unit/topic of discussion. In a sense, discussion board can be like blogging for a class
ReplyDelete