Virtual Virtues and Vices: The Discussion Board Dilemma

Virtual Virtues and Vices: The Discussion Board Dilemma

by

Bart B. Bruehler (Indiana Wesleyan University)

for

Virtues, Vices, and TeachingCalvin College, Grand Rapids, MI

October 4, 2013

Introduction

Since this is session is focused on virtue and

educational technology, let us start with a piece of

educational technology (and be sure we use it

virtuously!). Take out your cell phones and get ready

to text responses to the follow questions (using

“Polleverywhere”):

1. What kind of classes do you typically teach?

a. Face-to-face courses with little online

interaction.

Discussion Board Dilemma, p.2

b. Blended courses with a mixture of face-to-face

and online interaction.

c. Online courses with little face-to-face time.

2. Do you think that virtues can be effectively taught

through entirely online courses?

a. No, or only in a very limited way.

b. Perhaps some but not others.

c. Yes, both intellectual and moral virtues.

3. What is the greatest challenge to teaching virtues

through online discussion boards?

(Open ended question)

(Briefly discuss responses)

This presentation addresses the question of virtual

virtues and vices—how virtues and vices can be

expressed and inculcated through web-based technology.

We will focus on the role of the discussion board or

forum—one of the most widely used components of online


courses. This presentation will seek to answer the

following questions:

1. Can virtues and vices be effectively taught and

formed through virtual environments?

2. What are the key benefits and pitfalls related to

virtue and vice in virtual environments?

3. What are some of the best practices for discussion

boards that can help to promote virtues and prevent

vices?

These questions arise out of my own experience as a

teacher online. I have taught online courses regularly

for seven years, and over the past 2 years

approximately 90% of my teaching has been done in

entirely online courses. My disciplinary specialty is

Biblical Studies and Religion, and I teach a

combination of general education courses and courses

for majors who are usually pursuing their education as


part of a vocation to Christian ministry in some form.

I have felt both the benefits and limitations of online

courses through my own successes and missteps and

through the varying responses of my students. This

presentation has given me the opportunity to reflect

more deeply and thoroughly on how online education, and

discussion boards in particular, can help shape the

moral reasoning and character of students.

To add a bit more context, I work for the College

of Adult and Professional Studies at Indiana Wesleyan

University. While I have worked and still do work

occasionally with traditional undergraduates, adult

education, or andragogy, is of special concern to me in

this study. In this adult education context,

approximately 60% of students self-identify as

Christians, so I am also aware of framing the

development of virtue so that it overlaps with


following Christ but also includes students with little

or no faith commitment. Discussion boards in most of

our courses are “asynchronous”—posts may be made at any

time to any person (no live “chats”). Almost all of our

courses include weekly discussion boards (I have only

encountered one exception). Discussions begin with an

initial prepared prompt posed to students in the course

materials. Students typically must make a substantial

initial post, 2 responses to other students, and

sometimes a response to the instructor. Courses

typically use anywhere from 1 to 4 discussions per week

(I would say that 3 is the mode here with a mean

somewhere around 2.5). This is a nearly relentless

component of online education at Indiana Wesleyan. In

the course of a year, the typical student would

participate in approximately 100 discussion boards.

Thus, perhaps more than any other feature of our online


learning environment, discussion boards have the power

to form moral and intellectual virtues in our students.

As a Christian institution of higher education, it is

part of our mission to develop each student’s

character, and discussion boards offer a prominent

opportunity for us to do so.

Because of the recent burgeoning of online

education and the complex intersection of multiple

disciplinary domains brought together in my research

questions, I have had to draw from a range of

specializations to find some relevant resources to help

me shape and answer my questions: philosophical virtue

ethics, the psychology of moral development, andragogy,

instructional technology, and surveys from current

students at Indiana Wesleyan. I will draw on a mixture

of these in the rest of the presentation as we explore

these three main research questions.


1. Can virtues and vices be effectively taught and

formed through virtual environments?

This question immediately poses a set of complex

issues related to virtue and vice that we must

disentangle. First, we can consider precisely what we

mean by virtue and vice. Aristotle identifies both

moral and intellectual virtues in his Nichomachean Ethics.

He begins his discussion of virtue by focusing on the

moral virtues of courage and temperance, which both

illustrate his theory of the virtuous “mean” (NE 3.6-

12). Then he goes on to discuss a variety of other

moral virtues such as generosity, gentleness, proper

ambition, and honesty (NE IV) before concluding with a

more extended discussion of justice/fairness (NE V).

Then, he moves onto the intellectual virtues: skill

(techne), knowledge (episteme), prudence (phronesis),

wisdom (sophia), and reason (nous) (NE VI). The


Christian tradition has often used a list of 7 virtues

(courage, temperance, justice, prudence, faith, hope,

and love) sometimes supplemented by the fruit of the

Spirit (Gal 5:22-23) or the Beatitudes (Matt 5:1-11). 1

I used a broad scope of virtues and vices in my own

survey of current students.

Can online discussion boards both develop moral

virtues and teach intellectual virtues? My claim is

that the online discussion board is particularly well

suited for accomplishing both of these tasks. The

argument for teaching the intellectual virtues is

clearer and perhaps more intuitive. Online discussions

provide more focus on the cognitive processes of the

discussion, filtering out a large amount of social

dynamics that can hamper a face-to-face discussion.2

1 Peter Kreeft, Back to Virtue: Traditional Moral Wisdom for Modern Moral Confusion (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1986).

2 Martin A. Anderson, “Asynchronous Discussion Forums : Success Factors , Outcomes Assessments , and Limitations,” Educational Technology & Society 12, no. 1 (2009): 250.


Generating more initial and responsive posts has been

shown to have a significant impact on overall course

performance.3 More specifically, asynchronous

discussions have been shown to noticeably increase the

moral/ethical reasoning of students in a variety of

disciplines.4 In my own survey of students, when asked

an open ended question about the positive impact of

discussion boards, almost three quarters of the

students commented on the way in which it affected

aspects that fall under the intellectual virtues (e.g.

considering other points of view, sharpening arguments,

adding greater clarity). I have personally come to

consider the discussion board as my primary teaching

opportunity. Written assignments are often highly grade3 Stuart Palmet, Dale Holt, and Sharyn Bray, “Does the Discussion Help?

The Impact of a Formally Assessed Online Discussion on Final Student Results,”British Journal of Educational Technology 39, no. 5 (2008): 857-58.

4 Toby L. Schonfeld, “Reflections on Teaching Health Care Ethics on theWeb,” Science and Engineering Ethics 11, no. 3 (2005): 481–94 and Jeff Cain and Doug Smith, “Increasing Moral Reasoning Skills Through Online Discussions.” The Quarterly Review of Distance Education 10, no. 2 (2009): 149–63.


focused and heavily point weighted. Comments on written

work are deployed in a more utilitarian way by students

and allow no opportunity for response. Discussion

boards have lower grade stakes and permit for some

degree of interaction that can develop knowledge,

skill, and reasoning.

“That’s great!” you might say, “but doesn’t the

lack of personal contact decrease the ability to

develop moral virtues?” Certainly, online discussion

boards have their critics.5 As one surveyed student

commented about online discussions, “I don't know of

any features that promote any virtues or vices.”

However, two aspects of online discussion boards

demonstrate that they at least have the potential to

form moral virtues in students. The first is that

discussion boards have been shown to have a beneficial

5 John Miller, “Critical Thinking and Asynchronous Discussion,” Inquiry: Critical Thinking across the Disciplines 19, no. 1 (1999): 18-27.


effect on moral reasoning (as mentioned above). And,

while it is a highly complex process, an increase in

moral reasoning has been shown to correlate with and

perhaps cause an increase in moral action.6 Sound moral

reasoning is a key component in moral development.7

Phronesis, often translated as “prudence” or “practical

wisdom” can form the bridge between the moral and

intellectual virtues since Aristotle discusses it under

the intellectual virtues and the Christian tradition

has retained it in the 7 moral virtues.8 If this

simultaneously practical and intellectual virtue can be

“practiced” in online discussion boards, then it bears

the potential to transfer into virtuous action in other

6 Augusto Blasi, “Bridging Moral Cognition and Moral Action: A Critical Review of the Literature,” Psychological Bulletin 88, no. 1 (1980): 37-41.

7 W. Pitt Derryberry and Stephen J. Thoma. “Moral Judgment, Self-Understanding, and Moral Actions: The Role of Multiple Constructs,” Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 51, no. 1 (2005): 68.

8 The role of phronesis in connecting intellectual virtue and moral actionin the Aristotelian tradition is also suggested by Joseph Dunne, “Virtue, Phronesis, and Learning,” in Virtue Ethics and Moral Education (eds. David Carr and JanSteutel; Routledge International Studies in the Philosophy of Education; London: Routledge, 2001), 52-55.


dimensions of life. The second support here is that, as

mentioned above, the average student in IWU’s adult

online programs probably participates in approximately

100 discussion boards a year. This repeated action

presents a very natural opportunity for the formation

of virtuous habits, which is at the heart of moral

development. While discussion boards may present a

virtual and disembodied environment, they still have

the power to form transferrable dispositions.9 In both

objective and open ended questions, the students I

surveyed identified kindness as one of the most

commonly demonstrated virtues (through compassion,

encouragement, patience, etc.). Kindness as a “habit of

the heart” developed in the virtual world can then

transfer to the embodied world.

9 James K. A. Smith, Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation (Cultural Liturgies, vol. 1; Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2009), 55-62.


Thus, online discussion boards have the potential

for developing both moral and intellectual virtues, but

they also have the potential (as I have seen) to

promote certain vices, and that leads us to our second

question.

2. What are the key benefits and pitfalls related to

virtue and vice in virtual environments?

As with almost any educational tool, the knife cuts

both ways. Online asynchronous discussion boards

naturally include certain dynamics that can be employed

to form virtue or degenerate into the inculcation of

vice. In this section, we will briefly consider the

benefits and pitfalls of online discussions that make

it a “dilemma” that must be met with carefully

considered practices to be suggested in the next

section.


First, we face the fact that any repeated action

has the potential to form a holy habit or a numbing

routine. Studies have shown that students tend to

contribute the minimum number of required posts to a

discussion board, and requiring a certain number of

posts can be treated instrumentally by students who

contribute multiple shallow comments merely to obtain a

certain score on a rubric.10 Students can become barely

active “lurkers,” or unclear requirements can result in

fragmented and low quality conversations.11 My surveyed

students clearly identified “laziness” as the most

prominent vice manifested in their online discussions.

One student defined laziness as “doing the bare

minimum,” and another suggested that “group discussion

boards are particularly prone to this vice.” I have

10 Palmer, Holy, and Bray, “Does the Discussion Help?,” 849.11 Dip Nandi, Margaret Hamilton, and James Harland. “Evaluating the

Quality of Interaction in Asynchronous Discussion Forums in Fully Online Courses.” Distance Education 33, no. 1 (2012): 6-7.


seen this many times in my years as an online

instructor. I know that most of my adult students have

busy lives with many competing demands from family,

church, work, and school. I believe that we must use

discussion boards more judiciously–less may be more

here–so that we can leverage their potential without

drumming our students into strategic laziness.

As noted above, a virtual discussion environment

downplays several social and bodily cues (facial

expressions, body language, tone of voice) and

demographic realities (age, race, class) that help to

form social and moral boundaries in a community. This

disembodied atmosphere may produce students who react

harshly or critically to others, and indeed a few of my

surveyed students noted this phenomenon. However, after

laziness the most commonly cited vice was anxiety or

fear. An insightful student in the survey commented, “I


have known some of these people for years, but I don’t

really know them.” Students sometimes experience online

discussion as less personal and almost surreal.12 It

seems that among my students, the virtual environment

created a sense of “nakedness” where students cannot

rely on the various ways that face-to-face contact

offers support and relationships. Without these

buttresses, almost half of the surveyed students said

that they struggled with anxiety when responding in

discussions. The discussion board is eminently

performance oriented, and students feel anxious when

they simply do not understand or have not had time to

adequately process the material. Again, this has the

potential to create a disposition of anxiety when it

comes to moral reasoning or moral action.

12 Andresen, “Asynchronous Discussion,” 254.


Despite these possible pitfalls, the regular use of

asynchronous online discussion boards (when used well,

see below) may be one of the best available techniques

for the dual development of intellectual and moral

virtues. As discussed above, these discussions have the

capacity to simultaneously develop both types of

virtues. The asynchronous online discussion offers a

solution to a conundrum in virtue ethics. If it is the

good person who knows and does the good, then how can a

non-good person know or do what is good, and how can

one become a good person without prior good actions?13 I

would propose that the online asynchronous discussion

board presents an excellent opportunity for one to

practice the moral and intellectual virtues in a

virtual environment that can have low stakes in terms

13 Dunne frames this as the problem between general moral principles andspecific moral actions. How can one act virtuously in as specific instance if one does not have a large moral principle at work, but how can one develop a larger moral principle apart from the inductive knowledge of moral decisions and actions? Dunne, “Virtue,” 53-54.


of grades and social censure but offer opportunities

for encouragement and moral development. Surveyed

students commented repeatedly that asynchronous

discussions afforded them the time to read carefully,

ruminate over their own thoughts, and formulate a

response that was both kind and intellectually probing

(the virtue of patience is also built right into this

process). Thus, the virtual environment with its muted

fear of reprisal, potential positive feedback, and

moral thought and action in slow motion provides

students with an excellent opportunity to practice

virtuous thinking and actions that can contribute to

the building of virtuous character. The steady

processing of moral reasoning and virtuous manner may

provide precisely the kind of practice needed to

gradually acquire the virtuous traits of solid moral

character.


Discussion boards present us with a dilemma because

they can encourage both virtues and vices. Thus, we

turn to our final question to see how we might best

develop virtue and avoid vice in this virtual learning

tool.

3. What are some of the best practices for discussion

boards that can help to promote virtues and prevent

vices?

Let us begin with the eschewing of vice from

discussion boards. Many discussion boards are framed by

guidelines for civility, often called “netiquette.”

However, research has shown that such prefaces do

little to improve the quality of discussions. Rather,

the inclusion of specific didactic instructions has

significant impact on the quality and civility of

student posts.14 Very specific instructions, clear goals14 Herman Buelens, Nicole Totté, Ann Deketelaere, and Kris Dierickx,

“Electronic Discussion Forums in Medical Ethics Education: The Impact of Didactic Guidelines and Netiquette,” Medical Education 41, no. 7 (2007): 712,


for the discussion, and obvious connections to course

materials keep discussions focused and productive.15

Thus, it appears that explicit instructions regarding

the practice of the intellectual virtues (rather than

moral virtues) is more helpful for generating

discussion that is healthily critical (in the

intellectual sense) without being unhealthily critical

(in the moral sense).

Another key element for eliminating the vicious

results of discussion boards is to use them

strategically and selectively. Currently, I would say

that the discussion board is to online learning what

the lecture is to the classroom—it is a means that has

inherently useful characteristics, but its overuse has

led to student malaise. Online courses should use

715.15 Martin A. Andresen, “Asynchronous Discussion Forums: Success

Factors , Outcomes , Assessments , and Limitations,” Educational Technology & Society12, no. 1 (2009): 250-251.


discussion boards specifically when we are seeking to

analyze through critical thinking or to expand

perspectives through dialogue. Collaboration can occur

through wikis. Self-reflection fits best with journals.

Repeatable quizzes help most with content

comprehension. If students look forward to the

discussion as an opportunity to interact with their

professor and peers over an interesting question, then

we are much less likely to see laziness in minimalistic

participation.

Finally, the virtual, disembodied nature of online

discussions presents special challenges to the

promotion of virtue and the prevention of vice,

especially in the light of Smith’s claims that embodied

habits are key to the development of virtuous

dispositions in the Christian life.16 A sense of genuine

16 Smith, Desiring the Kingdom, 55-62.


relatedness among students can introduce a healthy

environment of accountability that limits various

intellectual and moral vices. Students may frame

arguments more respectfully and offer more

encouragement to those with whom they have some degree

of relationship. Also, rapport among students and the

instructor allows more constructive dialogue,

developing both the intellectual and moral virtues.17

Indiana Wesleyan facilitates student relationships by

employing a cohort model that groups a set of students

together throughout a program. Also, classes can be

constructed so that earlier dialogues focus more on

sharing information and relationship building as a

foundation for later discussions on more cognitively

demanding and sensitive topics.18

17 Schonfeld, “Reflections,” 490-91.18 Andresen, “Asynchronous Discussion,” 251.


The actions of the instructor play a key role in

both preventing vice and promoting virtue in online

discussions. Instructors can reframe activities lacking

the specificity and didactic guidelines and thus create

more virtuous discussions. Instructors can also

contribute to the relational atmosphere of discussion

boards by starting with welcoming comments and

demonstrating appropriate personal openness.

Researchers have questioned whether the instructor

should be a “sage on the stage” or “guide at the side”

or, now with online discussions, a “ghost in the

wings,” but most studies assert that regular

contributions from the instructor increase the quality

of interaction.19 Certain types of input make the most

noticeable improvements: periodic affirmation, asking

questions to further the discussion, offering new

19 Nandi, Hamilton, and Harland, “Evaluating the Quality,” 8.


solutions to problems, and redirecting discussion back

toward the main topic. I have personally found periodic

affirmation to be very powerful in the online

environment, which, as mentioned above, lacks several

of the social cues for affirmation found in a

classroom. A brief comment on the quality or insight of

a student’s comment from the instructor does a great

deal to reduce the anxiety experienced by many students

in online discussions. Also, moral sensibility or

sensitivity is a key component of the development of

virtue,20 and so instructors can ask questions and raise

new solutions that focus specifically on the moral

elements of an issue. This can help provide a new

dimension of analysis while stimulating students to

attune their moral sensibility. Finally, instructors

can play the important role of modeling virtue in both

20 Nel Noddings, Educating Moral People: A Caring Alternative to Character Education (NewYork: Teachers College Press, 2002), 47-48.


the manner and content of the contributions that s/he

makes.21 This comes both in the manner of the post

(modeling patience, kindness, generosity, etc.) and the

content of the post (modeling skill, prudence, and

wisdom.)

Aside from the role of the instructor, how can

online discussion boards help to develop Christian

virtue? It may be that a balanced combination of

anonymous and personal discussions may help here. The

study that resonates most closely with my teaching

context and this paper claims that when students posted

anonymously, they exercised more critical thinking and

demonstrated significantly higher scores on tests of

moral reasoning.22 However, more personal and story

oriented discussions are also needed to balance the

cognitive approach and help to re-embody students and 21 Philip e. Dow, Virtuous Minds: Intellectual Character Development (Downers Grove,

IL: InterVarsity Press, 2013), 123.22 Cain and Smith, “Increasing Moral Reasoning,” 159.


their community connections in a virtual world.23 The

key here is well thought out variety and balance. A

more personal approach may be achieved by placing

students into smaller groups of two or three to have a

more intense discussion on a topic rather than the

typical open posting amongst a group of 15 students.

While debatable dilemmas or controversial topics can

generate lots of discussion,24 students should also

engage in the analysis of widely accepted virtues and

moral narratives that emphasize honesty, temperance,

and fairness. Grounding students in the basics of

virtue gives them the ability to think out of these

stories and principles into more complex issues.25

Biblical narratives and exhortations are a helpful

23 Noddings, Educating Moral People, 61-65.24 Nandi, Hamilton, and Harland, “Evaluating the Quality,” 7.25 Christina Hoff Sommers, “Teaching the Virtues” in Vice & Virtue in Everyday

Life: Introductory Readings in Ethics (eds. Christina Sommers and Fred Sommers; Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace, 1997), 677-688, esp, 680-83.


resource here, because they offer paradigms and

principles of virtue for students to apply and emulate.

Virtues and vices can exist and be developed in the

virtual world, and the discussion board offers us a key

tool that we should use with prudence to prevent vices

and promote the moral and intellectual qualities that

contribute to Christlike character.

Documents

Virtual Virtues and Vices: The Discussion Board Dilemma