{"id":6117,"date":"2015-03-13T09:59:23","date_gmt":"2015-03-13T14:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/?p=6117"},"modified":"2015-03-13T09:59:23","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T14:59:23","slug":"improving-continuous-participation-in-discussion-boards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/improving-continuous-participation-in-discussion-boards\/","title":{"rendered":"Improving Continuous Participation in Discussion Boards"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Karen Nichols<\/p>\n

Are your students like some of mine in that they often wait until the last minute to post their discussion board assignments? When that happens, you have more grading to do all at once plus the opportunity for a really great discussion is missed because students are merely trying to complete an assignment before the deadline rather than practice engaged learning.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tony Birch gives two ideas to help maintain a continuous flow of discussion posts in his article \"How to Encourage Continuously Interactive Online Discussions<\/a>\" published in eLearning Industry<\/strong> earlier this year.\u00a0 In his article, he recommends two techniques to improve the flow of discussion posts.<\/p>\n

First, he suggests instilling a sense of social purpose for posting in the discussions.\u00a0 Your objectives for each discussion should be clear to the students--they should understand why they are being asked to discuss a topic.\u00a0 They should also be made to realize that their participation (or lack thereof) directly influences the success of the discussion and learning experience.\u00a0 The students should take ownership of the discussions. To assist them in achieving this requires fairly quick feedback from the instructors which includes suggestions like, \"Student X posted an interesting viewpoint on this topic.\u00a0 Why don't you have a look and discuss your take on it?\"\u00a0 So, rather than giving the general direction of \"respond to at least two of your classmates' posts\", you are helping to direct students to certain posts.\u00a0 In that way you can match up some students according to different criteria--a weaker one with a stronger student, two students with similar or different ideas, etc.\u00a0 This type of feedback can also ensure that everyone has received some response to their post and no one is left out of the discussion.<\/p>\n

Another way to discourage last minute or all-at-once posting is to reward students who post early and\/or throughout the given time for the discussion board.\u00a0 The author suggests adding Timeliness into your grading rubric.\u00a0 Here is the one he uses for a week-long discussion:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Timeliness<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\nAll posts are after Friday or all posts on a single day<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\nFirst post no later than Wednesday; other posts prior to end of week<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\nPosts early: First post no later than Wednesday; at least one other post Friday or before; posts on several days of the week<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/strong><\/td>\n0 pts<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n1 pts<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n2 pts<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The author notes that the total number of points is 13 so adding these 2 points affects the grade by 15%.\u00a0 Explain to the students that they can potentially raise their grade by 15% just by posting on time.\u00a0 The difference of a whole letter grade can be a significant incentive.<\/p>\n

Well, what do you think of these two ideas?\u00a0 Can they work for you with your discussion boards?\u00a0 Are you using other techniques with success?\u00a0 If so, please share!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Karen Nichols Are your students like some of mine in that they often wait until the last minute to post their discussion board assignments? When that happens, you have more grading to do all at once plus the opportunity for a really great discussion is missed because students are merely trying to complete an ...continue reading \"Improving Continuous Participation in Discussion Boards\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[109,149],"class_list":{"0":"post-6117","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-online","7":"tag-discussion-boards","8":"tag-formative-assessment","9":"h-entry","10":"hentry","11":"h-as-article"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p82MQk-1AF","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17945,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/brightspace-tip-296-use-private-discussions-for-journaling\/","url_meta":{"origin":6117,"position":0},"title":"Brightspace Tip #296: Use Private Discussions for Journaling","author":"Janice Florent","date":"January 18, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Many instructors are using reflective journaling as a teaching strategy. Reflective journaling is used as a means of aiding reflection, deepening students' understanding and stimulating critical thinking. Brightspace does not have a Journal tool. However, you can setup private discussion forums for journaling using the Groups and Discussions tools. A\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Brightspace Small Plates"","block_context":{"text":"Brightspace Small Plates","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/brightspace\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"journal with ink pen","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.pixabay.com\/photo\/2017\/05\/16\/13\/19\/writing-2317766_1280.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.pixabay.com\/photo\/2017\/05\/16\/13\/19\/writing-2317766_1280.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.pixabay.com\/photo\/2017\/05\/16\/13\/19\/writing-2317766_1280.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":18674,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/brightspace-tip-345-use-private-discussions-for-journaling\/","url_meta":{"origin":6117,"position":1},"title":"Brightspace Tip #345: Use Private Discussions for Journaling","author":"Janice Florent","date":"September 7, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Many instructors are using reflective journaling as a teaching strategy. Reflective journaling is used as a means of aiding reflection, deepening students' understanding and stimulating critical thinking. Brightspace does not have a Journal tool. However, you can setup private discussion forums for journaling using the Groups and Discussions tools. A\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Brightspace Small Plates"","block_context":{"text":"Brightspace Small Plates","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/brightspace\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"journal with ink pen","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.pixabay.com\/photo\/2017\/05\/16\/13\/19\/writing-2317766_1280.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.pixabay.com\/photo\/2017\/05\/16\/13\/19\/writing-2317766_1280.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.pixabay.com\/photo\/2017\/05\/16\/13\/19\/writing-2317766_1280.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3588,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/the-art-of-effectively-managing-discussion-board-posts\/","url_meta":{"origin":6117,"position":2},"title":"The Art of Effectively Managing Discussion Board Posts","author":"Karen Nichols","date":"August 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Karen Nichols A recent edition of Faculty Focus includes an article on successful discussions conducted online. There is after all an art to effective online communication. These considerations include the necessity to communicate with all students in the discussion forum. Personally, I respond to each of my students' original\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blackboard Bits, Bytes, and Nibbles"","block_context":{"text":"Blackboard Bits, Bytes, and Nibbles","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/blackboard\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7435,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/the-ultimate-guide-to-discussion-boards\/","url_meta":{"origin":6117,"position":3},"title":"The Ultimate Guide to Discussion Boards!","author":"Karen Nichols","date":"July 23, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Karen Nichols I know that a few of us in CAT have already posted suggestions and hints for success in using discussion boards. 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Do you want to setup your online discussion forums to encourage\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "CAT & Mouse: E-Learning"","block_context":{"text":"CAT & Mouse: E-Learning","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/online\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"laptop computer","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.pixabay.com\/photo\/2016\/11\/10\/13\/38\/notebook-1814343_960_720.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.pixabay.com\/photo\/2016\/11\/10\/13\/38\/notebook-1814343_960_720.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.pixabay.com\/photo\/2016\/11\/10\/13\/38\/notebook-1814343_960_720.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14862,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/alternatives-to-a-q-a-discussion-forum\/","url_meta":{"origin":6117,"position":5},"title":"Alternatives to a Q & A Discussion Forum","author":"Janice Florent","date":"January 7, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"A discussion forum is an excellent tool for student engagement. 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