There are several considerations to keep in mind when planning an online discussion including the learning objective, design of the question and supportive materials, instructions for students, grading criteria (if graded), and your role facilitating the discussion. You can use this worksheet to help you organize and plan out discussions in your courses.
Download the Planning Online Discussions Worksheet
Under the best circumstances, discussion boards encourage more learner-to-learner dialogue and encourage the instructor to "talk" less. This means that discussion boards can support the creation of new sets of communication patterns in which the instructor's voice is more in the background, guiding, observing, challenging, and monitoring the discussions. So what exactly does that look like?
Strategy: Develop a Bank of Comments
Try to anticipate student responses so that you can plan targeted follow-up questions or replies. By developing a bank of comments that you can copy and paste (and personalize when needed) you can cut down on the amount of time you need to spend replying. Either provide these comments privately in the graded feedback section or publicly as a reply to the forum. Remember to always watch your online tone. It can be harder to decipher the spirit or intent of someone's remarks when they are typed rather than spoken.
Here are some examples of phrases that you can use to facilitate discussion and extend thinking:
| YOUR PURPOSE | YOUR RESPONSES |
| Make connections to class materials or outside research |
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| Ask for clarification / elaboration |
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| Tie student ideas together |
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| Challenge assumptions |
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| Clarify misconceptions |
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Sourced from: Brown University: Key Questions for Designing Online Discussions
How can you use educational technology to support discussions? Check out the ideas below!
Provide personalized feedback and assistance in various forms (written, audio, video)
Take the time to identify and provide personalized feedback to each student about particular strengths and areas where improvements are needed.
Background Knowledge Probe (Formative)
Students complete a simple questionnaire that gives the instructor a quick look at their knowledge and preparedness prior to beginning the content area or session.
Clear Skies (Formative)
As with the Muddy Point prompt, ask students to write a response to a single question: “What was the clearest point for you in ___?”
Muddiest Point (Formative)
Encourage students to identify any unclear or "muddy" points.
Being Present in the Discussion Board
Tools
Flipgrid
Description
Early in the first week, provide highly individualized responses/feedback to all students.
Leave audio or video feedback in SpeedGrader
Breakout Room Brainstorm
Tools
Description
Use breakout rooms in Zoom to discuss questions about a concept or topic of study before beginning a unit. Students could also work in collaborative documents in the Breakout Rooms to crowdsource information about a topic by adding links, vocabulary, and other resources to use during the unit. Professor/instructor moves room to room to support the process.
The first discussion should be an ice breaker to help students get to know each other a bit to encourage them to form connections and increase their willingness to share. 
Sample ice breaker post - Multimedia intro: You could ask your students to create a thread to introduce themselves including a song and photo that represents them and explain their choices. Then they could be encouraged to respond to others’ posts.
Sample ice breaker – Two truths and a lie: Two truths and a lie where each student posts two truths and a lie about themselves. Then they respond to each other trying to guess which is the truth in each post.
Sample ice breaker – Theme song intro: Share a tv or movie theme song as your theme song for the course. Embed or link the song to your post. How do you think your journey in this course will go? What can we do to help you?
Encourage students to read all responses first before posting their replies to avoid being repetitive.
Contact a member of the CCIT team for individualized assistance!
If you don't already use a rubric for discussion boards or want to try something new, you can use this sample rubric, created in collaboration with Berkeley faculty. Here are some ways to adapt it to meet your needs...
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→ Customize Criteria What is an appropriate expectation based on the type of question and your students' skill level? Add or remove criteria based on these considerations. Criteria should reflect what you want students to be able to do to be successful in the discussion. Are your students ready to cite sources? Should written communication skills impact a student's grade for this discussion? |
→ Determine Point Values What is the main skill students are focusing on mastering in the discussion? Each criterion should be given a point value that reflects its importance to the student's performance. This may fluctuate based on the type of discussion question, the type of course, or the students' skill level. Is evidence of critical thinking more significant than correct citations? How much should grammar weigh compared to other criteria? |
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→ Adapt Proficiency Keep it simple or expand for clarity? Most of this depends on preference. This rubric has 3 levels of proficiency; others have 2, some have 4. How many columns will help clarify your expectations or make the grading process more effective for you? Simplify the language of the descriptions or lessen the complexity by cutting out unrelated phrases. Alternatively, expand descriptions to add clarity and specifics of what you are (and are not) looking for. |
→ Try Building it in Canvas Rubrics can be created and attached to any graded activity in your course. Once added, the rubric is viewable to students and interacts with the grade book. |
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