Discussion forums are typically facilitated in a Learning Management System (LMS), like Moodle, and offer students and faculty an opportunity to hold asynchronous threaded or blog-like discussions. Traditionally forums have been text-based, but posting audio and video files is also an option. Because the forum activity is part of the LMS they can be incorporated into the online gradebook for integrated grading.
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Forums Types
- Open Class Discussion
- Guided Discussion
- Post and Reply to Two
- Assignment Post
- Peer Review
- Reply to an instructor designed question
- Blog Like Discussion
- Text-based posts
- Video or audio posts (PoodLL)
- Other
Interaction Guidelines
Consider including Interaction guidelines in your syllabus. These guidelines can help students to understand your expectations about how to treat you and their peers, ask genuine questions, and hold space for things they disagree with or don't understand.
Example Interaction Guidelines
It is expected that in this course, we will all work to create a spirit of respect, curiosity, and dialogue, partly by following the guidelines below. The extent to which you demonstrate the capacity for this in your interaction in class discussions, forums and other course-related contact with instructor and students will be reflected in your grade. By your enrollment in this course, you agree to follow these guidelines for interaction with instructors and other students:
- Presume welcome and extend welcome—in informal interaction, in small group discussion, and in large group interaction.
- Refrain from fixing, saving, or setting straight others in the class.
- Avoid making your experience normative for others.
- When the interaction gets tricky, turn to inquiry rather than advocacy (wonder about something instead of defending something). Pay attention to the distinction between dialogue (which begins with a question) and debate (which begins with an answer).
- Make sure your questions are real questions, not ones intended to make a point, demonstrate prior knowledge, or communicate a hidden agenda.
- Observe confidentiality, especially regarding material shared by other students.
Forum Guidelines and Grading Criteria Examples
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Instructor Engagement in forum discussions can take various forms. One way to characterize approaches is with the roles of "ghost," "guide" or "guardguardian." The art of facilitating discussion forums is to find a good balance of the three that allows you to provide timely feedback.
Instructor Engagement Suggestions
Options for engagement:
- Read and respond to student posts "live" during the time that students are required to post. This approach allows you to keep track of where students are at with the course material, and/or to redirect or correct any mistaken or problematic material, to point students to other threads that they might benefit from.
- Bonus: this approach fosters community.
- Drawback: depending on the instructor interaction it has the potential to limit student interaction as they wait to hear from the instructor.
- Read or skim student pots "live" during the time that students are required to post, responding only as needed to incorrect or problematic information, keeping track of themes and items to address after the forum closes. Then write or record a summary of the discussion and post it as an announcement in the LMS (Moodle). It can work well to incorporate this into a weekly intro/overview announcement.
- Bonus: students feel the freedom to "own" the discussion.
- Drawback: there might be a loss of student-to-instructor community. (recording a video summary can help mitigate this.)
General suggestions
- Remind students to be encouraging to one another, even on challenging or heated topics, while also inviting them to analyze and debate.
- Connect personally with students to thank them for their contributions or to encourage them to contribute in a different way.
- Point out interesting contributions and good work.
- Provide prompt feedback. This is especially true in courses that use forums regularly, since feedback should can help students to improve their posts from week-to-week.
Forum Grading
- Forum grading can be complex and time-consuming, but with a good plan it can be manageable.
- These tutorials offer grading options. Additionally, Bethel's Instructional Technologist is available for consultation.
- Try to avoid giving points just for showing up in a discussion.
- Consider giving points for posts that make meaningful contributions to the conversation and student learning.