January 23 2007

E-Coaching Tip 33: What Makes a Good Discussion Post?

Last week we talked about building a community of learners within a course, and some of the behaviors by faculty and students that help create that learning community.

That tip was the first of a series of four (4) tips linking the three "C" characteristics of effective online courses: Connections, collaboration and community.

Discussion Boards is Where Community Happens

The question for this week's tip is what makes a good discussion post. As we have observed before, the discussion board is equivalent to the open face-to-face discussion "space" in a live classroom or seminar. The discussion board is the tool of choice for connecting to each other both socially and cognitively. The discussion board is where we express what we know and why, what we don't know and occasionally what we wish we knew. The discussion board -- collectively -- is where the community happens.

One of the authors referred to last week was D. Randy Garrison of the University of Calgary, who observed that a key advantage of online learning is that the interaction pattern of online courses tends to be "group-centered" rather than "authority-centered." This observation encourages thinking of course behavior at the level of a group. In other words, in addition to thinking of the individual learning events, to also occasionally focus attention on how the group is moving towards understandings.

The individual learners' roles is to "make the group and the learning happen" by their (1) embracing the content that is brought to the course, (2) integrating with their own knowledge, and then (3) creating and contributing ideas in a process of knowledge creation and discovery.

Shift from Turn-taking to Reflective and Developed Conversation

Another observation made by Garrison is that online discussions, operating asynchronously and thus, often more reflectively, can shift groups away from the frantic "turn-taking atmosphere" that often characterizes classroom discussions. Thoughtful posts and responses to those posts build on the thoughts and knowledge that the learners bring to the conversation. It is this type of discussion post -- responding to what other students have expressed as their ideas and why followed by what other individuals think and why that makes for good discussion posts. It is these types of posts that create sustained conversation about important ideas.

Does this happen naturally? I don't think so. As with most new types of communication, effective use of our systems requires practice and analysis. Also, how many of us know how to have sustained conversation, responding and building on other's thoughts without technology? What does it take to encourage student to not just "post " what they believe, but to read and "hear" what a fellow student is saying and to integrate those thoughts with what their existing thoughts and mental models.. This means that for some discussions that the faculty member observes, monitors and comments more on the process of how the content is being taken in, absorbed and integrated. This may be an elusive goal for many of us!

Here are two specific ways to encourage discussion posts that create community and sustained conversation.

1. Three Part Post -- What, Why and What I Wish I Knew

When you have posted an open-ended question that asks students for their recommendations and ideas about a particular problem, challenge, idea, encourage them to have these three parts in their posting:

• Part 1: State what your considered thought or recommendation might be. In other words, answer the question, "What do you think? "
• Part 2: State why you think what you think. This is a good place for learners to dig inside their heads, their experiences, their beliefs. It is also a good place for learners to provide references, links, to experts, events, beliefs that share and support their thinking.
• Part 3: State what you wish you knew or what problem, challenge will follow or accompany the original question.

2. Characteristics of Quality Online Discussion Posting or Message

We often are ambivalent about how strict we ought to be about guiding learners in their posting behaviors. At the same time discussion posts are a reflection of our minds and thoughts. Here is a set of recommended characteristics posted at a site at St. John's University (NY). See whether you agree with these and how many of these you generally require for the postings in your class. Note: the characteristics have been edited/rephrased for space considerations.

1. Substantial: Messages should relate to the subject matter and provide information, opinions or questions about that subject matter.
2. Concise: Studies have shown that messages that are several screens long do not get many replies. The point of your message should be clear.
3. Provocative: A good message is one that prompts others to reply or object.
4. Explanatory: A good message explores, explains, or expands on a concept or connection.
5. Timely: A good member of the learning community gets on regularly and replies to messages in a timely fashion.
6. Logical: A good message should contain a clearly stated conclusion of thesis supported by premises, reason, evidence or grounds of belief.
7. Grammatical: A good, clear, concise message should be well written and free of typos and sentence fragments.

More about Open-ended Questions

One of the earlier ecoaching tips had a number of questions focusing on effective use of discussion posts. In particular, Success Tip 3: Online Discussions --Part Two of Three: 
Developing Effective Questions provides hints on developing open-ended questions. If you would like some additional examples, this would be useful.

Thanks to those of you who have volunteered to share some of your experiences. We can be reached by the email below if you have questions, comments or would like your course reviewed.

Notes and References

Revised November 8, 2008
Copyright Judith V. Boettcher, 1997-2008