Reading, Writing and Collaborating Through Discussion Boards

Ida M. JonesProfessor of Business Law

Director, Center for the Scholarly Advancement of Learning and Teaching

California State University, Fresno

Outcomes Today

• Overview of discussion boards in the context of teaching, learning & creating a learning community

• Examine two uses of discussion boards• Review structures to create effective

discussion board assignments

Have you taught a fully online course?

Vote Yes or No

Have you used online discussion boards?

Vote Yes or No

How would you describe your success at using discussion boards?

Vote A. I had great success!B. It worked but I don’t think any

learning actually occurredC. Discussion Board? I don’t even

know what it is!

Effective Teaching

• Lectures– Manage learning– Control

• amount of info• How learners get the info

– Present to large numbers of learners• Socratic method: questions and answers

under fire; probing to encourage learning

Lecture-physical presence

Orally delivered content

Students listening, discussing in person

Students watching, taking notes, following instructor modeling the analysis

Learning Theory

info info

Objectivism vs. Constructivism

Surface learning vs. Deep learning

Questions so far before we get to two ways I’ve used discussion

boards?

One use of Discussion Boards: Collaborative Quizzes

• Collaborate to develop answers – Basic questions– Some case discussions

• Randomly assigned groups of 5-7 • Each week,

– Discuss answers to quiz questions – Prepare a group answer to each question.

• The individual quiz -3 randomly selected questions• Grades based on results of

– Writing original answers– Commenting/adding to other answers– Developing group answers– Taking quiz; submitting group answer as response

Overall, the group quizzes were an effective way to learn the material.

Agree48%

Disagree4%

Neither Agree nor Disagree

22%

Strongly Agree22%

Strongly Disagree

4%

Agree

Disagree

Neither Agree nor Disagree

Strongly Agree

Strongly Disagree

Overall, the members of my group were helpful in identifying areas of agreement and disagreement on

course topics that helped me to learn.

Agree. 33%

Disagree. 8%

Neither Agree nor Disagree.

13%

Strongly Agree. 46%

Agree

Disagree

Neither Agree nor Disagree

Strongly Agree

Another Use of Discussion Boards: Writing, Research and Critical Thinking

Alternative to the Research Paper

Website: Alternative to the Research Paper https://sites.google.com/site/bbworld2012alternativetothe/home

Tie assignment to expected outcome

• Testing knowledge and understanding of concepts • Discussing and solving a problem, case or factual

scenario • Encouraging discussion, reflection and analysis of

concepts and developing new insights into those concepts

• Applying concepts learned in the text to other readings to reinforce understanding of the concepts

• Developing a research project • Completing a lab exercise

What a Tech Start-Up’s Data Say About What Works in Classroom Forums

• Article in Chronicle of Higher Ed http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/what-a-tech-start-ups-data-say-about-what-works-in-classroom-forums/38960?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

– Formal, structured grading-less value than the informal structure

– Anonymous comments/questions worked better at more selective institutions, e.g. MIT

– Requiring that students introduce themselves resulted in more robust discussions

Have you learned anything you would use now?

Additional Questions or Comments?