Fostering Collaboration

Creating meaningful discussions takes some forethought and practice. As you are creating discussions, consider asking yourself the following questions:

• How does this discussion align to the learning objectives?
• In what way can students tap into prior learning and experiences in answering this discussion?
• How can I structure this question to foster varied responses, such as defending a position, offering an alternative viewpoint, or reflecting on one’s understanding?
• Have I provided clear expectations regarding peer replies, length, etc.?

Just as students need clarity and direction on how to answer their initial discussion posts, they also need guidance on how to provide substantive peer replies. Providing students with example sentence starters or questions to help guide their feedback can help push them beyond simplistic responses of agreement, and additionally, encourage them to debate or disagree respectfully. Students often shy away from constructive criticism, but building their skills in critical discourse and discussion is important.

Facilitating Discussions

Facilitating discussions and helping students build a connection to the course content and one another is an important role the instructor takes on. You should step back and be the guide who sees the forest through the trees for students, looking for connections and being intentional in calling those out. Those connections may include:

• Learner-to-content. For example, you may reply to a student and reinforce their thoughts on the subject and then ask them a specific question pulled from the week’s learning materials that would prompt a student to interact with the content to reply back to you.
• Learner-to-learner. For example, you may reply to a student and indicate that their views are similar to another student’s and ask them to engage in a dialog and/or an opposite view. Another way to facilitate learner-to-learner engagement and to facilitate peer-based learning is to intentionally pair students each week and/or create personas as a role-play for student to take on for their replies.
• Inquiry raising. For example, you may reply to a student and reinforce their thoughts, and then ask them to think at a higher-level with other resources and/or a thought-provoking question that extends their learning beyond the level of the discussion question.

As you think through how you might facilitate an online discussion, consider if you could:

1. Look at a discussion question that was written for "one right answer" that might feel like busy work, for both you and your students. Adjust the question to be more engaging, at an application level, and perhaps about current events (while still aligning to the learning objective to which it is mapped).
2. Use VideoNote to start the discussion and/or to reply with (and encourage your students to do the same).
3. Use Groups in the discussion to promote peer-based learning, social presence, and to encourage important team-building skills with your students. This can be especially helpful in a large class section! Create the groups, then create the discussion forum and topic, restricting access to the groups you created. 
4. Create a set of roles that students can assume to encourage healthy debate and the use of lenses to promote diversity of thought and opinion.
5. Pivot the discussion question into a debate where one set of students take a positive approach, while another take an opposing view.
6. Ask your students to poll their family or friends on their thoughts and feelings regarding the subject matter and present their findings.

It is important to think of yourself as the "guide on the side" when it comes to discussions, and as an active member of the construction of knowledge in discussions. Let your experience and expertise shine in your discussion facilitation! Allow students to engage in discourse, redirect as needing, and help find common ground!

Peer-to-Peer Interactions

The hub of student interaction in the online asynchronous environment is often found on the discussion boards. When created with intention and purpose, discussion boards can help foster meaningful collaboration, critical thinking, and motivation. Well-designed and facilitated discussion boards serve as a critical intersection for Community of Inquiry; discussions can give space for cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence through design of prompts and questions that stimulate critical thinking.

• Cognitive presence. How can we prompt the discussion to trigger a sense of puzzlement and encourage an exchange of information, while encouraging students to make connections and apply new ideas?
• Social presence. How can we help students perceive the discussion space as a trusting environment in which they can develop interpersonal relationships (with you and their classmates), and project their individual personalities?
• Teaching presence. How can we plan discussions with meaningful learning outcomes, and how can we facilitate the discussion to help students feel included, develop positive attitudes toward learning, find their participation to be meaningful, and engender competence in their contribution to the discussion?

In addition, discussion boards serve as one main vehicle for students to connect with one another and create shared meaning around course content. Recall that a Community of Inquiry is a "is a group of individuals who collaboratively engage in purposeful critical discourse and reflection to construct personal meaning and confirm mutual understanding". 

In previous modules, we discussed how instructors make a shift in online environments to allow for peer collaboration and student-led interaction, and the discussion board is where much of that collaboration occurs. By having peers reply to one another, connect ideas, and debate, students are sharing their experiences and demonstrating their knowledge. In these ways, the discussion board becomes a shared space for student interaction and co-construction of knowledge.

Through the discussion board, we can align to many of NLU's 10 Principles of Online Teaching at NLU by establishing relationships and a safe learning environment, encouraging and creating community engagement, and communicating frequently to demonstrate teaching presence in the online classroom.

Supporting Socio-emotional Learning

Remember, that in asynchronous online courses, students may not be meeting each other in real-time so it is even more important to think through social presence in your course—continually watering and feeding this base is critically important.

While you will likely spend time nurturing connections in your online course, you may find it useful (and your students probably will too!) to promote the use of a non-graded discussion forums on which students can socialize and talk to each other in a more casual environment. Sometimes referred to as a water cooler or "cyber cafe", these types of discussions can also be populated by you with topics that may not belong, formally, in your course, but may be something for your students to discuss.

Another way of tending the social-emotional learning and development of your students in an asynchronous environment is to pull in current and personally relevant topics into your online discussions, as well as encouraging students to do the same in their replies. You may remember from Module 1 we discussed tracking information students supply in their Introductions, and how the continued use of these pieces of information demonstrate social and teaching presence, in addition to increasing feelings of belong for your students.

You can also pay attention to patterns of repeated behavior to identify warning signs that students may be experiencing some emotional distress:

• Behavioral changes such as sudden deterioration in quality of work, abruptly beginning to submit posts late, or becoming disrespectful in discussion posts.
• Unusual behaviors such as discussion posts that are bizarre, disruptive, confused, or show disorientation.
• Academic performance problems such as displaying an ongoing anxiety about assignments, not responding to replies to discussion posts, or not completing discussion post assignments.

If you observe any of pattern of these behaviors, be clear, matter of fact, and to the point about the behaviors of concern with the student. Non-judgmental acceptance of the student's state of mind is helpful for encouraging conversation about the problem. For example a comment like, "It seems as if you are having a rough time" or "I sense that you are really stressed out" shows concern without confrontation. Student responses to your outreach can range from relief, to panic, to defensiveness and anger. If anything in the conversation leads you to be alarmed or have increased concern, reach out to your program leader for guidance on accessing NLU resources to help you and your student.

While these suggestions may not present the breadth and depth of all the social-emotional learning our students may need, continued tending to items like these techniques helps to build community and connections, leading to great social-emotional connection to each other and their programs.