Engaging Discussions Webinar - #sharemynotes

On Tuesday, 10/11/16, Judi, Traci, Jane, Alyssa, Anita & I gathered in the eLab to watch a QM sponsored webinar on designing engaging discussion boards. I thought I'd share my notes, which are really just an incomplete list of ideas (I am sort of notorious for forgetting to take notes during meetings). But I think there may be some useful nuggets for our group.

Anyone who attended, please add your thoughts in the comments (and fill in any of my many gaps).

A few points about students and online discussions

• Students can feel very isolated in online environments, and online discussions can help bring students together. 
• Students learn from each other.
• Discussion boards are great places for students to practice thinking, writing and connecting.

 Ideas to make online discussion engaging

• Have a catchy title (this could go too far in some circumstances, but I thought of one of Anne Lamott's chapters in Bird by Bird-- used by one of our own faculty, and available in our own BTC Library-- "Shitty First Drafts"); ask a provocative question in the title.
• Invite a guest speaker, then facilitate conversation via the discussion board.
• Ask open-ended questions (here are a few OEQs, what do you think of them?).
• Ensure you (the teacher) have a presence on the boards -- chime in, ask guiding questions, suggest areas of inquiry, etc.
• Make sure to align discussion with other course materials and activities; adult students want to see connections between what they are learning and what they are doing (andragogy), they also want to apply their learning to real life.
• Discuss arguable topics - controversy inspires interest; this also presents an opportunity for students to discuss and practice online etiquette and civility (in a format that you the teacher can monitor and influence).
• Students respond to authenticity-- be yourself and consider writing more like how you talk when you set up discussions and when you jump in to coach or validate what students are saying.
• Embed videos (your own, YouTube, etc.) in the discussion board and ask for responses -- this is engaging for several reasons, including that it reduces the clicking around that students have to do in order to access the discussion content and instructions.
• Use scenarios-- present a situation in the discussion, then ask the students to predict what will happen (bantering is good).
• Use audio - talk to them (one of my professors in grad school always posted an audio version of her notes on the upcoming week's objectives and activities along with her written notes. It was a huge relief to be able to absorb information withOUT reading, and also very nice to hear her actual human voice in that challenging online class).
• Be modern (use memes, cartoons).
• Use real graphics & photos, especially of people-- always look for ways to humanize the online environment. (Also, remember to give credit-- we have a built-in awesome Attribution Builder now...)
• Use bullets & organize your instructions with headings (allows them to scan and is accessible).
• Ask yourself, will this discussion connect students to each other?

 

Have a happy day! Dawn

Our First Meeting

I felt nervous as the clock ticked its way to 2 pm. Who would show? Who wouldn't? I checked the chaffing dish of assorted hot vegetables-- tempura battered mushrooms, broccoli and zucchini, baked sweet potato wedges-- that Annie from Culinary Services had just delivered for us. I poured myself a small glass of ice water. In my mind, I ran through the list of people I'd invited to our gathering, taking the time to call up each person's face (a habit I've cultivated to humanize "likes" on social media), trying to imagine how they might be experiencing a Fall quarter Friday afternoon. I suspected some of us would be feeling more enthusiastic about an end of the day, end of the week meeting than others.

Alyssa and Mary from our Accessibility Department were the first to arrive. Alyssa, a calm, friendly person who will always laugh at your jokes, was happy to see the veggies. Mary, a warm and communicative student advocate and bridge-builder, investigated the identities of the mystery sauces that Annie brought for us. 

I thanked them for coming.

Marcia and Janell, two of my favorite BCIS faculty from the floor below, came in. Marcia, a truth-teller, shared a conversation she'd just had with another employee questioning the thinking of anyone who'd plan a meeting on a Friday afternoon. Janell, who is kind and makes excellent use of time, just smiled very broadly at me, so I knew she had some thoughts about Fridays, too. 

I thanked everybody for coming again.

Judi came in. I could tell she was thinking about something, she's always thinking, planning and working things out. A positive person, she says "yes" a lot. She tries new things, lots of new things. We follow each other on several social media sites, so I know she travels and hikes and lives with a beautiful dire wolf named Shiya. 

We all gathered around the tables in the eLearning Lab and chatted for ten or fifteen minutes, and then I thanked everyone again for coming. I pulled up the Canvas site that I'd structured for the FLC to use and shared the agenda for our gathering, explaining that I hoped to discuss the main points of our grant, give them a tour of the Canvas site, share a few resources, and pick some dates for future gatherings. 

As we were looking at the over-arching questions from our grant documentation, ("What do we mean by student engagement, and how does it contribute to course completion and success in online environments? What characteristics of online course design, learning materials, activities, and technologies are most likely to create or discourage student engagement? What are best practices for creating accessible online learning materials and activities using technology?"), Jane joined us. She is the busy director of Library and Media Services, very wise, and laden with institutional knowledge. She is also my former supervisor of many years. I am certain we could finish many of each other's sentences without much effort.

I remembered that we hadn't yet done our group activity, Expectations: 

• Tell us your name and describe your role here at BTC.
• What do you expect from this faculty learning community?
• Please make a wild prediction of the best possible outcome if your expectations for this group come true-- be specific-- and as outrageous as you like!

Here are the word clouds of our responses.

Here is the word cloud of all of our posts merged together:

Anita, our newest tenure track math teacher, who is efficient, precise, and working hard to figure out how our institution works, joined us after her last class, as the group discussed an upcoming webinar on designing engaging online discussions. I was very happy to see her. I think she will gain a lot from spending time with other faculty, and I think the group will benefit from her naturally great observations, as well as from the fresh perspectives she brings as a new employee.

Most of us are planning to register for an online QM class, Using Instructional Materials and Activities to Promote Learner Engagement, which begins on November 3rd. I'm looking forward to focusing on standards 4, 5 & 6, which are foundational to our FLC topic:

"how course design, materials, learner activities and course technologies affect student engagement and student success in online learning environments, using QM Standards 4 (Instructional Materials), 5 (Course Activities and Learner Interaction), 6 (Course Technology) and 8 (Usability and Accessibility) to frame our inquiry."

I feel very lucky to be working with this amazing group of people to build a community and to figure out how to make online learning better for our students.