ITSpotlight is designed to keep the campus up to date on ITS activities and services.
Build More Engagement in Discussion Boards
Posted November 13, 2024
Build More Engagement in Discussion Boards
By Pamela D. Williams/IDLT for Spotlight, November 2024
-
Consider using multimedia in your prompts. A song, music video, cartoon, or brief interview can help spark students’ interest and evoke deeper responses to course content that might be highlighted in a reading or article. Multi-modal exposure to course topics helps students see concrete and abstract ways to apply what they’ve been exposed to before and during your class. Be sure to use videos that are accessible with captions and a transcript available. If you need help on this, you can use YuJa , use the captioning service , or contact a member of IDLT for suggestions.
-
Get in the game! Discussion boards are not just for students! Get in there and interact with your students, portray an alternative view, push students to consider the implications of fully engaging or fully departing from a perspective, course of action, or policy. Intentionally engaging with the students in the discussion boards can be a great way to enhance and increase the regular and substantive interaction (RSI) in all of your courses, but in distance education courses especially, since it is required by the Department of Education.
-
Make it portable! Instead of using the run-of-the-mill post once and respond twice, what if you had students respond to a prompt in a way that demonstrates a professional skill or communication-based competency? You could have students respond to a prompt by writing a letter to the editor, responding from a persona or author’s theory (or a counter-theory). Encouraging students to write in a variety of technical writing formats can help them add to their professional portfolio which is a High Impact Practice and tool they can use to market themselves for employment and future scholarly endeavors.
