Discussion Boards & Active Student Engagement

A common challenge for faculty is how to encourage robust student discussion and participation in online learning spaces, an issue that has become more important with the move to fully online learning in response to Covid-19. While most students and faculty are familiar with online discussion forums and chat boards in some form (e.g., Reddit), finding ways to promote truly engaging discussion can still be challenging. 

With students online all the time, being able to develop and sustain online student discussions can give your students a more meaningful online learning experience and play a vital role in shifting student learning from discussion post drudgery to active engagement. Just like a dynamic classroom, discussion boards can act as the center of a lively learning community when used in creative and thoughtful ways that contribute to and support your individual classroom learning outcomes and goals.

This faculty teaching guide focuses on ways to engage students more deeply in online discussion spaces and offers suggestions and tips for how to build more robust online discussions that encourage substantive student participation, promote active learning skills, and foster creative thinking and thoughtful reflection by students.

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• RESEARCH

  Examine selected research on promoting virtual classroom discussions:

  Lieberman, M. (2019, March 26). Inside Higher Ed. Discussion Boards: Valuable? Overused? Discuss.https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2019/03/27/new-approaches-discussion-boards-aim-dynamic-online-learning(opens in new window)

  (2014, December 19). Online Learning Consortium. Online Discussion Boards: Strategies to Ease Instructor Burden and Promote Student Learning. https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/online-discussion-boards-strategies-ease-instructor-burden-promote-student-learning/(opens in new window)

  (2020, March 17). Pearson. Using discussion boards to increase online class engagement. https://www.pearson.com/ped-blogs/blogs/2020/03/using-discussion-boards-successfully-increase-online-class-engagement.html(opens in new window)

  Abdulla, R. (2021, January 4). Online Learning Consortium. 5 Tips for Increasing Student Engagement Online. https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/5-tips-for-increasing-student-engagement-online/(opens in new window)

  (2022, December 29). Wiley University Services. 9 Student Engagement Strategies for Online Discussion Forums. https://universityservices.wiley.com/9-student-engagement-strategies-for-discussion-forums/(opens in new window)

  Wiley University Services. Developing Deep Reflection in Discussion Boards. https://ctl.wiley.com/developing-deep-reflection-in-discussion-boards/(opens in new window)

  Mokoena, S. (2013). Engagement with and participation in online discussion Forums. Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology-TOJET, 12(2), 97-105. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270570650_Engagement_with_and_participation_in_online_discussion_forums(opens in new window)

  Hole, G. O., Larsen, A. K., & Hoem, J. (2010). Promoting the Good e-Teacher: Didactical Choices when developing e-pedagogical Competences. Seminar. net. https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2481855(opens in new window) (opens in new window)

  Lesson: Publishing, Sharing, and Commenting. Transliterate Librarians. https://transliteratelibrarians.weebly.com/uploads/3/7/4/2/37427333/publishing_sharing_and_commenting2.pdf (PDF)

• APPLICATION

  Ready to expand the use of online discussion spaces in your teaching? Here are some ideas and strategies to get you started:

  The best way to promote student engagement is to model the interaction you want. It's critical that we are actively reading/responding to student discussion posts weekly. Students are more likely to engage in discussions if they get feedback from their instructors and see that you're actively interested in what students are saying. It does require more time, but the students will see you are engaged and will respond to that. 

  Make an introductory post in week one and welcome each student with a personal reply. Doing a video introduction is ideal, especially for asynchronous classes, as this can help to promote a sense of a community and personal identification with peers. 

  Another way to encourage interaction is to have students upload an avatar for their user profile, making posts more personal and helping to recreate a community feel.

  Consider splitting weekly discussion posts into 2 parts. Have students respond to a question early in the week (M/T), then respond to their peers later in the week (Th/F). Making student participation in online forums a larger part of the overall grade can also help develop a weekly practice that centers the value of online discussions.

  Send weekly reminders about discussion post deadlines (24-48 hrs) before they are due, reminding everyone of deadlines and thanking those who have already posted. 

  Create an "Open Discussion" thread that you regularly share interesting stories, media, and related content in. Encourage your students to share and add to it. Create an early semester "Check-In" or "Class Feedback" thread to ask how your students are doing, if they are struggling with anything, and how everyone is doing generally.