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Discussions to support learning

An effective and pedagogical way to work is to have the students learn from each other through discussions, even when the discussion is not a graded assignment. You as a teacher can structure the discussion in different ways, depending on the objective of the discussion. Is the objective to get other perspectives on certain assignments, or is it to ask questions regarding anything course related? We will go into detail on these two objectives below.

Increase communication and student collaboration in your course

Discussion forums are one of three tools to promote digital collaboration between students that is recommended by Stefan Hrastinski, professor at the division of digital learning at the Department of Learning, ITM. Read more about his research in social learning and how communication and collaboration  can be used as a pedagogical method.

Assignment specific discussions

An easy way to motivate the students to start a discussion is by creating discussions on a specific assignment or question. This gives it a clear purpose, even though it is not a part of the grading. This however, requires more time from teachers than a student driven help forum does since assignments/questions need to be presented in a way that makes them easy to discuss. When the assignment has been submitted, the discussion’s comment section should be closed. 

An example of an assignment specific discussion could be that students are given an assignment where they shall read and analyse a text based on given questions, and they are encouraged to discuss the questions in the discussion forum. The students will then encounter different perspectives and opinions which can help them write a better analysis. 

You can let the students create their own discussion threads, but for assignment specific discussions it works well if you as a teacher create discussion threads for every assignment or question. This also signals to the students that you expect them to be active in the discussions. 

Student driven help forum

Students often ask their teacher when they have questions, many of which another student probably would be able to answer. However, since they have your email, they ask you instead. If it is a common question this can lead to a lot of emails. If the question is asked in an open forum instead, it is enough to answer it only one time, which reduces your workload. If this forum is student driven, i.e. students answer each other's questions, it also increases interactivity between students.

In a student driven help forum you can let the students create their own discussion threads when they have questions they cannot answer. You can also create threads on specific topics (such as finding a study group, help with specific concepts, study tips, etc.) and ask the students to ask and answer questions in the comments.

Note! We strongly recommend that you are very clear with the students that admin questions should only be answered by teachers. Admin questions could be, for example, when is the exam or how many points do they need to pass. If they do not receive an answer, they should contact the responsible teacher via email. This is to avoid misinformation that could lead to students missing assignments etc.