Thoughts on Hybrid Course Discussion Boards, by Marianne Reiff

As a newcomer to the hybrid teaching format, I was frankly surprised to find that the use of an online discussion board was an effective tool for teaching. When I was asked to write an entry for the new eLearning and Instructional Support blog, I considered what might have helped me as a new instructor and reflected on just why I found the discussion board tool so useful. If integrated within the course design, an effective discussion board (DB) can mitigate the “learning evaporation effect” that plagues any learning environment. In addition, a well structured DB supports re-alignment of the course power grid underlying participation in knowledge creation, accountability, and responsibility.

It has long frustrated me to notice that learning evaporation starts the moment students leave the classroom and re-focus on whatever comes into the foreground of their attention. A discussion board can extend the classroom learning by creating visual documentation of how students transfer learning into their own experience. Not only does it crystallize and document learning; it can also extend it. I have seen new ideas spark and ignite and grow into new learning right before my very eyes. The tactile process of having to write out a concise post or response demands attention to what is being said. My role in all this is to create the initial guiding question or scenario.

I use the term “power grid” to conceptualize who has the deliberative voice about what happens when in a class, what the power relationships are between teacher and students. I have experienced the agony of giving up a bit of professorial power as I “sit on my lips” and choose not to respond in discussion boards designed as dialogue between peers. Through experience, I have learned that what I may have to say is less valuable than what students can construct for themselves. Truth be told, a few times students climbed mountains I didn’t even know were there – and they took me with them. A strong DB supports learner self-evaluation, shifting the assessment power base from teacher to student. The technology of a DB provides students the ability to collect selected threads that capture an overview of their work. Students are able to assess and provide examples to support an evaluation of their own work. In my opinion, when this is used as part of collaborative evaluation, the power grid shifts ever so slightly toward evaluation as learning rather than as judgment.

Development of an effective discussion board is an art, and I don’t have it all figured out. I have, however, learned some things from experience that I will carry forward into new hybrid courses:

• Don’t ask a question I already know the answer to: I needed to learn and read and study about how to ask open-ended questions worthy of a discussion board. This is where much of my work happens.

• Set clear expectations. This is more efficiently done in a face-to-face environment where misconceptions can be clarified and jargon defined.

• Make sure everyone has the tools to do the job: Participation in a DB can be a bummer if you don’t know how to get in, navigate, fix goof ups, or get your message in the right thread.

• Be highly structured: Definite parameters about when and how much to post and respond actually clears away space for creativity.

• Posting and Responding is not conversation: Set guidelines for posting and responding using a guide or rubric. I even role play during face-to-face in order to start with clear expectations that posting and responding is serious professional dialogue, not a new form of IM.

• Attend to sequence and timing: Set the deadline for posting a few days prior to deadline for responding.

• Less is more: Asking students to limit responses to a certain number of words demands synthesis and taps into a critical level of thinking.

• Integrate the DB: As an instructor I need to be clear about why the DB is a good idea, and how it supports the course. If it is truly part of my course design, then I can use the rich ideas, resources, controversy, and input as fuel for the rest of the course.

• Just because I think it, I don’t have to inject it into the DB. Yes, this is a version of sitting on my lips and letting learners create the dialogue. It also is a reminder that I will always have a voice in the course. If I feel something is important, there will be a place for me to include it.

I know I will continue to learn, and make mistakes, and learn things over again as I continue to teach hybrid courses. It is challenging and a bit uncomfortable to learn a new way of approaching learning. I have found that my core philosophical values about teaching are still in place – I’m exploring them in a new environment. The discussion board is a tool I’ll keep in my toolbox for sure. Within myself, I was debating writing this blog as I left work late one night. Classes had ended and trash cans were stuffed full with flip chart paper from the night’s work. I was stopped dead in my tracks by a sense of loss. I wanted to pull it all out and post it up and start a discussion board and keep the learning going. I wanted to mitigate the evaporation effect. Instead, I decided to write this piece.

--- Marianne Reiff is an Assistant Professor teaching in the School of Education at Lesley University