online discussionI am thinking of different ways to score and foster student interaction in online discussion forums.  My goal is to have students meaningfully interact with one another. 

The Current Stipulations:

As of right now, I have a requirement that they respond to three students posts and I ask that each of those responses are 100 words long, have 2 citations from the reading/lecture and engage the discussion.  The word limit is there for force space for engagement, the citation requirement is there to get them to ground the discussion in the sources (and to keep things out of opinion land); both of which are designed to (hopefully) get them to engage the ideas of the other students and hopefully spark meaningful discussion.

The Disaster of Last Semester:

Last semester was a disaster in my online classes in terms of discussion.  I did not have tangible requirements, I did not have quick feedback, and when I did get around to giving feedback, if it was present, it was thin.  I was pretty overwhelmed with the volume of first-time teaching I was doing ontop of seminary classes.  Not an excuse, just an explanation.

klingons[3]Today is a Good Day to Discuss:

This semester, my online class is doing so much better in terms of discussion.  I attribute it to the above requirements and I am forcing myself to give detailed feedback the day after the discussion posts are due.  Additionally, I am reading through all of the initial posts and instead of trying to respond to each one (which kills discussion), I post a sticky which guides the general conversation. 

My Question:

While the content of the discussions are up (especially the posts), there still is a lingering problem of overall student cross-engagement.  I want to improve the overall quality of discussion, not just increase individual outputs.  So, I am thinking of trying out the following:

  1. Have each student score each of the other student’s posts
  2. For their three replies, have them explain the scores.
  3. I would give the whole class a base discussion grade which represents the overall quality of discussion
  4. I would also give each student individualized scores and feedback

So, according to the above, there would be three scores that go into a student’s weekly score:

  1. 5pnts Other Students Appraisals
  2. 10pnts Base Discussion score
  3. 5pnts Individualized Discussion Score

The hope is that the above would get the students to a) read all the other posts, b) think critically about the other student’s posts, c) explain their critical thinking, and d) have an investment in the overall discussion (an investment in the classroom community).

I’d love to get your feedback, especially if you have taken or taught an online class before.

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