Discussion Tips

Throughout the course students must participate in discussions. Each of the discussion prompts is unique. Some discussions require students to go out into the world and try something, or research some topic, then return to the discussion to share. Other prompts ask students to reflect on the work they've been doing, or the resources they have engaged with, and offer some commentary or reflection.

As an instructor, it's your job to help these discussions move forward and be relevant to students. You should participate in the discussions, too, but in a way that does not dominate the discussion. You are playing the role of facilitator and moderator in discussions, so your goal is not to be the star participant, per se.

Some tips for facilitating discussions

• Respond to individual postings with additional questions.
  • Ask follow-up questions such as, "Can you explain more about why you think that?" or, "What if X were changed to Y, would your opinion change? Why?"
  • Ask open-ended questions that allow students to expound on their statements, rather than giving a yes/no answer.
• Encourage students to provide links or to quote material they have found.
• Express appreciation for student posts, especially when they have come up with a clever metaphor or idea. Phrases such as "thanks for pointing that out" or "thanks for sharing that link" are very helpful and encouraging to students.

Sometimes students post incorrect or misleading information. If this is done maliciously, then you may have an issue that should be handled outside the scope of the discussion itself. However, most of the time this results from some core misunderstanding of the material. When addressing incorrect (or partially-incorrect) posts, do so in a compassionate and educational manner. Remember, nobody learns from shame or punishment. Students only learn from encouragement and success. The goal is always to lead students to the correction, and it must never be to shame students for supplying erroneous information.

If a student posts an erroneous fact or statement in a discussion, here are some tips for responding:

• Try to understand why the student made the mistake. Is it an easy mistake to make? What precisely don't they understand? In order to correct the mistake, you must first try to understand what mistake they made and why they made it.
• Frame your corrections in language that acknowledges what the student did right in their response. If there are accurate portions of the response, call those out and praise those.
• Provide a correction and a link to read more. Don't feel the need to make your correction incredibly verbose. Again, the point is not to make it clear HOW wrong the student was, simply to correct an inaccuracy so that misinformation does not continue to spread.

Avoid "well, actually..."

A "well, actually..." happens when somebody corrects a minor inaccuracy, and it's especially annoying when the correction bears little relevance on the topic at hand. In cases of small misapprehensions or mis-statements, it's always good to give the student the benefit of the doubt. They have mis-typed or mis-spoken, but it might not warrant a full-blown correction as described above.

Use your best judgement as you work with students. Only provide public corrections when the misinformation could be detrimental to other students understanding. All other issues can be discussed in private and in a way that is compassionate and thoughtful towards the student's well-being.