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Facilitating Discussion Boards
| Online Learning Module |
How to Facilitate a Discussion Board
Discussion boards can be wonderful forums for conversation about a specific subject area. Discussion board forums can also be ineffective and redundant. In facilitating a discussion board, it is essential that the discussion be strategically planned in relationship to the other communication mediums that will be used by a class or group.
If a group is using a classroom or meeting room set up, there are several arenas for communication.
- Posted lectures or point papers – for information that needs presentation, documents for approval or reading, lectures, point papers
- Bulletin Board or Discussion Board – ideas and conversations facilitated through this medium can be ideas that a group can build upon, controversial ideas that can be critiqued, individual responses to posted information and student/ participant reactions to synthesized content points.
- Chat discussions – Chat is not the place for extensive new learning or information. Its main function is to reduce isolation, build community, motivate learners, open issues, tie things together, and give the instructor a “feel” for how the class is going.
- Personal email communications - Instructors and facilitators can utilize this tool to extend and react to individual points. Planned Email communication is also a forum that provides participants the opportunity for reflective dialogue with the instructor/facilitator. Often instructors use this medium to “check in” with students and ask them to personalize their learning on key points. Questions like: "how did you feel, how did the information affect you, how did you react to...?" are samples of email reflection questions.
Asking the right question(s) to fit each communication medium allows the instructor/facilitator to maximize each distance education tool. When using the discussion board forum asking the right question can make the difference between singular responses and a dynamic and interactive “thread”.
As a facilitator/instructor, replying to postings is essential. Replying to individual posts allows the facilitator to deepen the learning by asking extending questions and clarifying key points. Public learner feedback from an instructor/facilitator also allows other participants to see what ideas and thoughts are “on track” and to learn from peer postings. Encouraging participants to respond to each other creates an arena for participant – participant teaching/learning. Participants and instructors can continue to dialogue about relevant information and key points for several days, thereby creating a dynamic learning forum.
Types of Questions
- Open Ended – what is the most significant point of this activity?
- Semi-open ended - what is the key point about individuals with special needs that this activity is trying to make?
- Clarifying – how can this information help to broaden a participant’s perspective?
- Values – if you were working with parents of a child with an autistic spectrum diagnosis, what is the most important communication strategy to keep in mind?
- Connective – we have discussed the connections between development and diagnosis. Please make further connections and briefly discuss the relationship between diagnosis and practice.
- Relational - if a practitioner understands how to facilitate developmentally appropriate social skills in a childcare and education setting, what elements would an observer note in the day-to-day practices of a professional?
- Synthesizing – what core values about children are evident in the in the School-Age Care/OST code of ethics document?
- Application – what characteristics of the learners or learning group would make this activity a good choice to use in training?
Techniques for Using Questions
Questions can be categorized according to the effect they have on the brain of the learner. The way a question is asked will have a great impact on the thinking process that the learner will use.
- Synthesis - when students synthesize information they gather parts and make a whole. This type of question can help learners organize ideas, plan and create methods and procedures, and integrate a variety of ideas into a view of the larger whole. Instructor questions can support the development of this process.
- Analysis – when students analyze information, they break down a concept problem or pattern into the components parts. Analysis asks the leaner to break down the parts and discuss how they come together.
- Critical Thinking – this complex process involves the acquisition and analysis of data, and the evaluation of this data. Feelings, attitudes, and beliefs enter in to this process. One-way students are asked to use critical thinking is when they are asked to make decisions based on evaluating core components of ideas or theories.
- Example: You will be training a group of experienced providers who have had some positive and negative experiences with inclusion. Consider all of the activities that support the learning in Chapter 2, which two activities would you choose and why?
- Creative Thinking - this involves the development or reorganization of ideas, objects, and words. The product that is created is unique, new, original, or imaginative. Providing learners with creative thinking opportunities can help students build awareness of their creative potential, promote problem solving, and stimulate the production of new ideas and products.
- Example: Create or design a new activity that would reinforce the concept of parent partnerships. What would happen if …? Describe a common interaction during a typical day of caring for children that might look different following training specific to working with families.
