Search
Close this search box.

Revamping Online Discussions: Prompting Students in Three Directions

Credit: iStock.com/opico
Credit: iStock.com/opico
The textbook in the online educator preparation course I was redesigning would not have been my first choice. It was dry, theory heavy, and difficult to read. I wanted to supplement it with an engaging discussion activity—a student-directed one—that would motivate students to read it and think critically about how it applied to them professionally. In particular, I wanted students to choose how they responded to the text and which part of it they responded to. Additionally, I wanted to make sure that students met the core module learning objective in a way that was relevant to them. Finally, I wanted students to engage with one another. While traditional discussion forums combine all these goals into a single discussion, I thought it best to separate them into different discussions to ensure that each goal was met.

To continue reading, you must be a Teaching Professor Subscriber. Please log in or sign up for full access.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related Articles

I have two loves: teaching and learning. Although I love them for different reasons, I’ve been passionate about...
Active learning is a mostly meaningless educational buzzword. It’s a feel-good, intuitively popular term that indicates concern for...
Perhaps the earliest introduction a student has with a course is the syllabus as it’s generally the first...
Generative AI allows instructors to create interactive, self-directed review activities for their courses. The beauty of these activities...
I’ve often felt that a teacher’s life is suspended, Janus-like, between past experiences and future hopes; it’s only...
I teach first-year writing at a small liberal arts college, and on the first day of class, I...
Proponents of rubrics champion them as a means of ensuring consistency in grading, not only between students within...

Are you signed up for free weekly Teaching Professor updates?

You'll get notified of the newest articles.