Keeping your balance

I often find myself on a teeter-totter ride when teaching online because I’ve taught traditionally for over 25 years in the area of speech communication. I’ve been teaching online for a few years now and teach six different courses, five of which I’ve developed from “scratch”. I’ve earned my M.O.T. (Master Online Teaching certification). I’m the co-author of two communication textbooks. I’m ABD (All but dissertation) in Adult Education. I read, on the average, 30 articles related to online teaching and learning every eight weeks. You’d think with this list, I’d have the perfect formula for facilitating effective discussions and would have no difficulty finding the “just right” balance. Yet, I struggle every time I log on to my classes and read discussion postings. Does this posting need a reply? Should I wait longer to see if a student replies? Can I interject an opinion, stating it as that, without “killing” the discussion? Do I need to stimulate a discussion? If so, should I use a Socratic question, or is it time to remind them of the discussion rubric on which they will be evaluated. Should I post an “Atta Boy/Girl” message to point out superior work, or encourage a less participatory student when they have posted an important point?

I share these concerns for two reasons. One, to let you know, I understand how difficult effective facilitation can be and the time commitment designing and promoting flourishing discussions requires. Secondly, I want to stress the fact that there is no “cookie cutter” design for effective facilitation. The goal of asynchronous discussions is the same as that of all communication, a clear understanding of the message sent. While there are similarities to all situations were effective communication occurs, each situation requires a quick analysis so the message sent is the message received. The following suggestions, along with those already discussed, can provide you with a frame work to analyze each discussion, deciding what, if any response is needed.

• Write effective discussion responses – Provide your students with a list or short lecture on the type of response, both initial postings and replies, you expect.
• Provide examples – Ask students who post exemplary responses if you can use them as examples in future classes. Be sure to find out, if they agree, whether they wish to be accredited by name or anonymously.
• Function as gatekeeper – Encourage and motivate students to participate by asking specific questions and addressing them by name. Send them private messages when they need to be reminded they aren’t participating in an appropriate manner.
• 24 hour response - Never let a question directed to you specifically go unanswered for more than a day. You may reply with another question or a request for their classmates to respond if that would facilitate the discussion, but do reply. If you don’t log in on Saturday and/or Sunday, be sure students understand. If a question requires an answer that needs time to research, send a message saying you are in receipt of the question and will get back to the sender within XYZ time limit.
• 36-48 hour wait period – If a message doesn’t ask for a response from you, as a “rule of thumb”, let it “sit” for a day and a half or two days to encourage other students to reply first. Or until you see a flurry of activity, indicating interest, enthusiasm or confusion.
• Compensate for lack of nonverbals – Approximately 80% of what we communicate is done through nonverbal communication. In a F2F classroom humor is usually understood as that. Online with the loss of facial expressions and vocal tones, messages meant one way are often interpreted differently. Compensate for this loss by using color, bolding, italics, underlining, and other formatting to fill in these gaps. Emoticons like smiley faces and abbreviations like LOL (laughing out loud) can add to comprehension if they are understood by all participants. Make sure your students also understand that communication breakdowns can occur and teach them to compensate as well.
• Delete rude or inappropriate postings – These messages create a negative environment for free exchange of ideas. They can spark defensive and hostile responses from others. You’ll have to put on your striped umpire shirt to disentangle the participants. After deleting those postings, immediately inform the poster(s) what happened to his/her message and why in a private forum or via email. Let them know what the consequences are if such postings continues. If you established rules and consequences “upfront” in the course, enforce them!
• Provide clear and explicit instructions – Good directions are important. Online they are crucial. Take the time to delineate each step of the discussion assignment. It elicits better responses and saves you time in the long run.
• Make objectives clear to students – Knowing what is to be learned or accomplished in a discussion usually results in more satisfaction for the student and facilitator. Students know why and how to focus messages. Facilitators are rewarded with effective learning environments.
• Provide and stress the evaluation process – When students know exactly how they will be evaluated they tend to live up to those expectations. This is an area that is often left undeveloped in both F2F and online courses.

There is no “one size fits all” for discussion questions and their facilitation, but being aware of what is effective, and some of the problems that can be averted, will have your discussions “off on the right foot”. The final area that affects discussions is evaluation.