The online component of our course has an email forum (a google group) for the year 1 students which is intended to have a function analagous to the discussions which you have in the classroom.
Because of the increased amount of time which is available for the students to reflect on the questions asked of them (due to the assynchronous nature of these discussions), I have expected that the majority of students will participate in these discussions. Accordingly I have made the topics of discussion fairly important or even central to the students learning in some cases.
The problem that I’m having here is low participation. In a discussion topic posted last week two students out of a class of 16 posted a response. This discussion topic while it is not directly assessed, is based around developing an assessment instrument that the students will use in their major piece of assessment for the course. I’ve been fairly disappointed with the response rate as a result. I’ve extended the period of the discussion, and heavily pushed the point that this is a critical discussion for us to have, and that has led to contributions from 2 more students so far.
Maybe I’m expecting too much? I guess if I compare this to a classroom discussion, I might get a similar response to some questions.
Does anyone have any ideas on how I can improve the response rate (short of making the students contributions an assessment item)?
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August 27, 2008 at 1:10 am
sarah stewart
I think this question is on par with: what’s the meaning of life? Short answer: we have made it an assessment requirement.
The other thought is the platform you are using. I am wondering if a bulletin board facilitates conversation? Does a blog do it better or am I just being pedantic?
August 27, 2008 at 1:18 am
davidmcquillan
I’m not sure if blogs do facilitate “discussion”.
They certainly allow communication and cross-fertilisation of ideas, but I’m not sure this is ideally analagous to a class-room type discussion. What do you think?
The other minor issue with blogs is the process of getting used to blogging & using a feed reeder (although I am planning to get this going in the early stages of the course next year).
August 27, 2008 at 2:49 am
veronique
Hi David
I’m not doing much blogging myself but still watching what’s going on around the place. This caught my attention and I had some thoughts especially as you mentioned what you might expect from a traditional classroom discussion.
My experience of classroom discussions is they tend to work much better if you have them working in small groups first and then bringing their ideas to the rest of the class, this usually then stimulates ongoing discussion. There is of course the other technique used often in a classroom discussion where you simply direct questions to particular people and this helps open up the discussion.
I’ve observed and experienced both of these working quite well in online discussions in Blackboard and no reason for them not to work in a google group. Many people like to sit back and wait before jumping into a discussion but I know that when I have a question directed specifically at me I have felt compelled to respond to it fairly quickly, just as I would in a real classroom discussion. You could try asking some of the other students a question or two based on what has already been posted and see what happens. Its a little more directive than free-flowing I know but does bring peoples ideas out.
Maybe for another discussion try a small group exercise initially (google group, google doc or are you using elluminate?, perhaps using skype) and a group discussion from there.
If these don’t help it may well be as Sarah has suggested the only way to get everyone involved is to make it an assessment requirement.