Post Once, Respond Twice, Think Zero Times: Crafting Better Online Discussion Boards 

Article Summary: Increase engagement in your online courses by thoughtfully crafting interesting discussion prompts and getting involved in the discussion yourself. This article provides practical steps to crafting meaningful questions and fostering an online discussion.

 

For many online courses, discussion boards are a cornerstone activity. Thinking back to my singular online course I took as a grad student, I used to dread these discussion boards labeling them as substanceless (maybe pointless instead?) busy work. The posting schedule was frustrating for my busy calendar, the instructor was nowhere to be seen, and the ideas present were mediocre at best. Interactions often look something like this:

Why Are Discussions Often Ineffective?

While certainly we can often point to our students as not creating particularly engaging posts, they are not the only ones to blame in this recurring discussion-less discussion board activity. Frequently, instructors “set it and forget it;” in other words we pull in the discussion board from the previous semester and only look at the posts when we sit down to grade. On top of that, the prompt itself can fail to foster a genuine discussion and in-turn discourage student engagement.

In this article, I aim to present ways to revitalize this staple activity in your own online courses and build vibrant, interactive discussions that promote communication, diverse perspectives, and in-depth learning. Let’s get into it.

My recommendations fall into these three ideas:
1. Setting clear post expectations
2. Crafting the prompt
3. Getting involved in the discussion yourself

Set clear posting expectations.
Students frequently fall into a pattern of responding just to check the box of this assignment. With the post once, reply twice model so regularly used, students may bring in their expectations and experiences from previous classes and incorporate those practices into their posts. Students also may be taking similar online courses where the expectations are different. Consider that student experience and help them orient to your coursework with each assignment.

It is always best practice to communicate your expectations on any assignment regardless of the students’ personal familiarity with your courses. Do you require citations, a word count, or a certain language? Make sure to specify these parameters in the assignment prompt rather than relying on your syllabus or other course documents to set this expectation. Communicating clearly about what we expect is a requirement for good instruction.

Craft the prompt.
Every good discussion starts with a good prompt. Designing a productive discussion board starts with crafting high-quality questions that stimulate thought and interaction.

Superficial prompts lead to superficial answers. No one wants to write these rote responses, and we certainly do not want to grade them. It is crucial to design them thoughtfully to engage with students and encourage meaningful dialogue. Here are some key principles to consider when designing your discussion prompts:

1. Ask Open-Ended Questions with Multiple Correct Answers
A good discussion prompt should allow for more than one correct answer. Would you use this question on an exam? If so, it’s probably not a very good discussion question. With only one correct textbook answer to the question, students will not have anything to add in response to each other as they have all said the same thing. Nor will they craft their own original responses as the answer is not really their own anyways. Make sure to ask questions that could have a myriad of answers base on the content to create an engaging discussion.

For example, instead of asking, "What are the four phases of a project's life cycle?"—a factual question with a single correct answer—ask, "Which phase of the project life cycle is most important and why?" In addition to recalling the list of phases from our course content to answer the question, asking in this way also allows students to engage in debate, support their reasoning, and connect different content presented in the class in new ways.

2. Utilize Students' Diverse Backgrounds and Experiences
Questions that encourage students to draw on their personal experiences or cultural backgrounds lead to more interesting and authentic engagements. Consider asking questions that directly connect the course content to the student’s personality, job history, or family life. This not only increases the students’ engagement on the topic, but also increase the chance for students to connect to one another in their responses.

For example, "Describe a project you’ve worked on and explain which phase you found the most challenging" invites students to share their unique insights, making the discussion more dynamic and personally relevant to their lives.

3. Make Questions Relevant to Real-World Contexts
Similar to the previous suggestion, connect the discussion topic to current events or specific real-world scenarios. Connecting the course content to the world around us has been proven to increase engagement and further learning. A study was done in a joint venture between four colleges and universities in Michigan in which a real-world situation was embedded in a discussion. The researchers found the exercise “improved their learning, enhanced their sense of empowerment, and heightened their perception of the quality of the course” (Mebert 2020).

For example, "Identify a current project in your community or city and explain which phase of its life cycle it's in" bridges course content with real-world application, making the material more practically relevant to students.

4. Foster Peer-to-Peer Learning
While certainly we expect students to receive the course concepts from our curated course materials, there is proven merit in having students contribute to each other’s learning as well. We can design prompts that rely on that interaction between students by proposing a complex or controversial issue and then asking students to reflect and debate on the topic. Encourage students to pose questions to each other or require them to respond critically to their peers' contributions. 

In a study done at The University of Florida, “students responded that they were more engaged and thought more critically about the content” when they used “student-generated videos with higher-order discussion questions” (Hamadi 2023). While video discussions are a great way to increase engagement and qualify of posting, simply asking students to reflect and evaluate on complex issues fosters peer-to-peer learning.

A prompt like, "Post a question about one of the project life cycle phases and respond to two of your classmates' questions," promotes deeper engagement and collaborative learning.

Get involved in the discussion yourself.
In-person discussions often get our guidance through subsequent questions and steering the conversation. Why shouldn’t online discussions get the same level of instructor care? “Recent studies have indicated that instructors should be putting emphasis on the threaded discussion area of online courses, which has often times been neglected” (Cranney 2011). Without your presence, some students may respond with misinformation and push the dialogue in the wrong direction. Your lack of presence might also signal to students that their contributions don’t matter, and thus reduce their motivation to participate meaningfully. Take the time to carefully guide students and engage with the topic. Your presence in an online class can certainly be felt through this activity and can provide you with opportunities to interact with individual students. In addition to other communications throughout the semester, a personalized response from you can go a long way with individual students.

Think about posting a response yourself. You could start the conversation with your own response as an exemplar of what you expect from students. If you don’t wish to lead the students in a particular direction with this move, consider posting your response halfway through the life of the discussion post. This allows your early posters to set the tone, and you can add to the conversation and reinforce what quality posts look like.

If you are unable to contribute meaningfully throughout the life of the discussion post, consider summating the discussion at the end. Just as you would in an in-person discussion, write a quick final thought or couple of take aways from the student’s submissions. Use that post to instruct the students on where to think next or reflect on the progress and learning thus far.

 

Activity: Improve a Discussion Prompt

With those ideas in mind, let’s refine a prompt of your own design. Take a discussion question from one of your current or past online courses, or use one of the examples below and craft a better discussion board question:

Original Prompts:

• "How do you calculate the stress load in a beam?”
• "What are the stages of Piaget's cognitive development?"
• "How did the American Civil War start?"
• "What are the signs and symptoms of dehydration?"

Consider the ideas we discussed:

1. Does your question have more than one correct answer or require a judgment or comparison?
2. Does your question ask students to connect element from their own lives into their response?
3. Does your question ask students to apply a concept to a real-world problem?
4. Does your question ask students to interact with their peers by discussing a controversial or complex issue?

Better Prompts:

"In structural engineering, stress calculations are critical, but different materials respond differently to stress. How would you apply the principles of calculating stress to a real-world scenario, such as designing a bridge or building? Consider factors like material selection, environmental conditions, and safety margins. Share your thoughts and respond to a peer's suggestion on how they might modify their design based on different real-world constraints" (OpenAI, 2024).

"Piaget’s stages of cognitive development have been foundational in psychology, but how do you see these stages manifest in different cultural, educational, or familial contexts? Can you think of a time in your own experience where a child or adolescent exhibited behavior that aligned or conflicted with one of these stages? Share your example and comment on how a peer’s experience either supports or challenges Piaget’s theory" (OpenAI, 2024).

"The causes of the American Civil War are complex, ranging from economic disparities to social and political tensions. From your perspective, which factor do you believe had the most significant impact in igniting the conflict, and why? Consider the roles of slavery, states' rights, and economic factors. After you post your perspective, engage with a peer’s post that emphasizes a different cause and explore how both factors might have intertwined to lead to war" (OpenAI, 2024).

"Dehydration can present differently across various populations (e.g., children, older adults, athletes). Based on your own experience or research, how might dehydration symptoms differ in these populations, and what preventive measures or treatments would you prioritize for each group? Share a clinical scenario or personal experience and respond to a peer’s post by offering additional interventions or considerations" (OpenAI, 2024).

Now, test out your new prompt in an upcoming course and observe how students engage with it compared to your original question. You’ll likely notice a difference in the depth and quality of the responses.

Many instructors on our campus have had success in modeling engaging discussion board posts by presenting students with the RISE Model. Take a look at this site to learn about the structure this model provides students as they post:

https://www.risemodel.com/ 

 

^References

• ^{Cranney, M., Alexander, J. L., Wallace, W., & Alfano, L. (2011). Instructor’s discussion forum effort: Is it worth it? MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 7(3), 337-348. http://jolt.merlot.org/vol7no3/cranney_0911.pdf}
• ^{Hamadi H, Tafili A, Kates FR, Larson SA, Ellison C, Song J. Exploring an Innovative Approach to Enhance Discussion Board Engagement. TechTrends. 2023 Apr 24:1-11. doi: 10.1007/s11528-023-00850-0. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37362586; PMCID: PMC10124679.}
• ^{Mebert, Laura & Barnes, Roy & Dalley, Jacqueline & Gawarecki, L. & Ghazi Nezami, Farnaz & Shafer, Gregory & Slater, Jill & Yezbick, Erin. (2020). Fostering student engagement through a real-world, collaborative project across disciplines and institutions. Higher Education Pedagogies. 5. 30-51. 10.1080/23752696.2020.1750306.}
• ^{OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT (Oct 2 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat}