Online Discussions

Facilitating online discussions

Online Discussions

The facilitation of online discussions, both synchronously and asynchronously, is an important part of engaging students. This section breaks the topic into four categories:

1. Introductions and Community-Building: Student-to-student conversation, interaction, and support creating a comfortable and trusting social presence.
2. Initial Content Engagement: Students think about what they already might know about a new idea, concept, problem, or closely related concept.
3. Investigation and Research: Builds on the student’s understandings and expands the knowledge base needed to apply and use the knowledge.
4. Integration and Documentation: Require students to use their new content knowledge to solve problems, investigate related questions, and make predictions.