WHAT S UP WITH ONLINE DISCUSSIONS?

DR. KATHLEEN GRADEL 8/11 SUNY FREDONIA TLC SESSION

The good news

Online learning venues are proliferating, with the majority of learning

management systems (LMS) embedding discussion tools. PLUS there are tons of options outside of LMSs that are free, available, and user-friendly.
What are they? Online spaces where students (and faculty) can

concurrently or asynchronously publish contributions, making original posts and/or replying. Posts can include text, links, uploaded files (e.g., text, images, movies, audio files), and embedded files that are housed at other sites.
What are they called? Venues can take the form of blogs, Wikis,

discussion areas/forums, podcasts, image/video sites, shared documents, concept maps, and other online objects.

The bad news

Idea 1:
There is an assumption that all discussions are created equal. It is so easy to host an

online discussion area that the backup thinking about what the discussion is designed to produce may be not well thought out. Discussion for discussions sake may be the new 21st c. busy work in online courses. Idea 2:
With a proliferation of discussion assignments, students may experience discussion

fatigue, produced by blog bloat on instructors parts. Idea 3:

Without substantive incorporation of online discussion material into other course products

or process what is published can be viewed as add on or unnecessary. Even when discussions are structured to ask students to post and then reply to others, there may be a tendency to treat these postings as just something else to be done on a long list of course accountabilities.

The bad news continued

Idea 4:
Given the diverse readiness and motivation factors that

characterize university students, discussion work often fails to help differentiate for students on the wide spectrum of writing, communication, and thinking skills (Gradel & Edson, 2009).

Idea 5:
The discussion forum is the sole tool used by some instructors to

facilitate student-to-student interaction, and

Too often, the mechanics of discussion areas predominates course

design, overshadowing the meat of the learning that the instructor is trying to produce.

AND
Idea 6:
Given the ubiquity of online discussion tools in both

proprietary course management systems and in opensource platforms, it takes an extra step for the online instructor to identify alternative tools. Further, the choice of alternatives is so wide, that building comfort with them is often a challenge for instructors for whom the Web 2.0 (and soon, Web 3.0) world may already be intimidating.

AND
Idea 7:
Although reports abound about the tech withitness of the

current generation, there is a significant concern about the difference between being connected and connectedness or ability to use varied tools to solve interdisciplinary learning problems (e.g., McKinney, Dyck, & Luber, 2009; Ohler, 2009). On the opposite extreme are students who are so wired, that they are critical of instructors being out of sync with current trends and tools. This diverse range of student skills and predispositions can be problematic to faculty, as they consider options for their courses.

Finally
Idea 8:
Too often, faculty design from the technology

backward, rather than beginning with targeted learning outcomes of what we want students to know and do.
Sometimes, this thinking leads us TO discussions. Sometimes, this thinking leads us to alternative

products.