Improving Discussion Boards

The first time I used an online discussion board, I was a sophomore at Lone Star Montgomery College circa 1997. It was in an English composition course and the instructor wanted us to try out this cutting edge technology. I had entered various AOL chat rooms and participated in some email discussion lists, but I thought this asynchronous format used just for school was pretty great.

Now, however, the format is pretty stale.

There are some nice alternatives like Flipgrid, a video discussion tool, and Voice Thread, a multimedia discussion platform.

Because I use a lot of outside software already (like Adobe Spark, SoftChalk, Office 365 Collaboration, etc.), I wanted to make the best use I can of the discussion boards within Canvas, my LMS. However, there are several issues that I wanted to address.

• No plagiarism detection

• Short posts

• Lack of analysis

• Poor choices for outside sources

• Misuse of outside sources

Inspired by the TQE discussion format, I changed the model to fit an online discussion board and address some of the above issues.

Instead of assigning a text, I embed a video for them to view. I have other ways to assess their textbook reading, and there was too much copy and pasting happening when I wanted them to talk about the text. The videos I choose are 3-15 minutes, depending on the unit. My go-to providers are PBS, Facing History and Ourselves, TED, and museums.

Here are the directions that I give to students:

Directions: First, watch the video. Then, use the “TQE” format to respond. Example: Thoughts (summary, analysis, etc.); Questions (lingering queries, things you did not understand); Epiphanies (light bulb/aha! moments). Finally, respond to at least one student in which you provide your own thoughts, answer one of their questions, and give your own epiphany to their initial post. 

Length: At least 300 words for the initial post and at least 100 words for the response post.

Citation: Find an article online or a section in your textbook that you can quote to add understanding or context to what you learn in the video.

Discussions are low-stakes assignments, never worth more than 25% of the course grade. I assign one per week/chapter - a total of 16. So, using a “single point rubric” simplifies the grading process. I’m more interested in making sure they have all the elements (and actually watched the video and found a source) than I am reading several mini-essays. I’ve been using the rubric above. If you wanted to differentiate a little more, you could have two points for each category so that there is a midpoint range.

This format makes reading and grading discussions way less painful.