Online discussion forums can be engaging and fun! I never thought I would say that… at least before last year! I had taught a bioethics course for several years and once in a while we would use a discussion board. It was quite dull. Then, with the pandemic and redesigning courses… and lots of help from Bethany Smith, DELTA, and Quality Matters (QM), I revisited online discussions. Now I love providing options and appreciate what students share. The prompts and sequencing of forums is critical, though, and I am still trying to figure out what works and doesn’t in different courses. That’s why I was interested in a talk I watched this evening.
Billie Franchini from University at Albany presented a keynote session entitled “Asynchronous Online Discussions that Change Student Thinking” for the 2021 Lilly Conference Online. Franchini started by presenting the three different instructor scenarios with different sequences for online discussions. The scenarios differed in when the discussion boards were used and if they returned to them. All three made me think about options that I had not considered. Franchini used a poll to gather information from the audience and… then prompted us to think about the advantages and disadvantages of each approach. In a couple of the scenarios, students started with a discussion board and then returned to it after activities and short quizzes. The concern that was raised was that the forums should not be busy work because… we are all getting tired of them! Franchini highlighted that the discussion forums should be meaningful and prepare learner for application of concepts. People mentioned the value of trying to answer a question or share ideas before learning more and then returning to the forums for further discussion; however, the common concern seemed to be that students may not return to the discussions.
Franchini then broke down the scenarios: in two cases the plans focus on abstract concepts first before asking learners to apply concepts to a specific case. In a third scenario, students work on a task first (analyzing a case) and then learners work on abstract concepts. Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle was introduced by Franchini and explained as beginning with a concrete example, reflecting, conceptualizing, and then try in a new more challenging experiment. Novices learn with concrete experience, having students do something, before abstract task. Franchini mentioned that instructors, as Ph.D.s, usually start with abstaction but not novice learners. One bullet point on Franchini’s slides that was really important: students already know something! Franchini suggested:
- prepare students for the higher-order thinking that assignments require.
- prepare students to change their thinking by reflecting, and
- let students explain the excitement of our work by focusing on meaningful work since the beginning.
Franchini referred to research that suggests that “learning improves when students make naive mistakes … if they are then required to reflect on their naive thinking, gain new/correct information and articulate how new information changes or integrates with their prior understanding, and immediately put their new knowledge to work by re-attempting a challenging concrete task.” Franchini emphasized that:
Online discussions are particularly powerful for this [changing their thinking] because students’ prior thinking is made visible.
Billie Franchini, Lilly Conference Online, May 2021.
Franchini also used a useful prompt to ask the audience to share: “I used to think _____. Now I think _____.”Franchini also explained that they provided the audience with a limited set of case studies for discussion so that the task is framed and bound. Towards the end, Franchini revealed that we had just completed most of a learning cycle:
- Concrete experience by reading a short case and choosing the best approach.
- Observation and reflection by explaining the thinking behind our choices and comparison of choices with colleagues.
- Abstract conceptualization. Here is how learning works, how does this integrate with or change our earlier thinking.
Franchini stressed that we need to give learners guidance on how to respond to each other to explain their thinking. For example, find someone who disagrees with you. Returning to the discussion forums allows learners to plan how they will use this new knowledge.
