Starting discussions in an online environment can be challenging. Here are some specific activities that promote online discussion. For more online activities, see our Instructional Activities or Online Instructional Activity Index

1. First, it is critical to clearly communicate your expectations. Provide a policy on expected student participation and a description of your grading criteria. Always include a grade for participation and a MINIMUM number of weekly student contributions to the discussion. At first, students may submit short, superficial responses – but at least they will start “talking.” In time, their responses and contributions will show more depth and insight.

To conduct a useful learning experience, especially in an online course, it is important to have a focused chat. That is, one that focuses on a specific topic of discussion so that it is easier to keep some order to the chat.

In some chat programs, you can even save all or just a portion of chat sessions for future use. This feature could be used to post to a class discussion area so that students not able to attend the live chat can read others’ postings and not feel left out.

Encouraging and Utilizing Communication

Strategies for Using Chat as a Communication Tool – Learn more about some practical uses of chat including, pedagogic uses, coping strategies, and chat etiquette

Effective online instruction depends on learning experiences that are appropriately designed and facilitated by knowledgeable educators. Because learners have different learning styles or a combination of styles, online educators should design activities that include multiple modes of learning. Teaching models should also be adapted to the new learning environments.

Students need much more support and feedback in the online environment than in a traditional course. This is because the potential threat that students feel alienated is quite high in the Virtual Classroom. Using effective feedback strategies will enable the instructor to identify and meet individual student needs as well as encourage students to participate and continue to participate at a high quality level. Here are strategies for providing feedback in the online classroom:

Like the facilitator, the online student possesses unique qualities. The online students of today consist primarily of working people who are trying to better their opportunities. This however is changing, as more and more young and older people become aware of the online model. The traditional school will never go away, but the virtual classroom is a significant player in today’s educational community. Corporations are using the online model to train technical professionals while private and public universities redefine the world as their markets.

As the facilitator of an online course, it is important that you clearly communicate your expectations to your students. In your online course, you may want to include reference links to resources and tips for your students to use to help them be more successful online learners. Here are some tips for success that you should share with your students:

This article has been reprinted here with permission from the author.

John E. Reid, Jr. Ph.D.
Coordinator of Distance Education Technology
Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw Georgia.

How We Learn

Many researchers have developed models about learning.