Online Discussions: Week 4

Week 4 Activities

We've talked a lot about the four roles of the online instructor and have heard about (and shared) some common instructional challenges with online discussions. As we have seen, there is quite a bit of overlap with certain components of the four roles when facilitating an actual online discussion in a course. Likewise, not all of the four roles address all of the potential instructional challenges with online discussions; some respond better to certain challenges than do others. Let’s put all of these elements together and brainstorm some real-world solutions for how to manage and apply them in a course.

We've built these Week 4 activities to get you started on working online discussions into your own course plan and to reimagine syllabi for future semesters that might now incorporate online discussions. Our in-person brownbag this week will be a great opportunity to share your ideas for these Week 4 acvitities, to consult with us on your lesson plans, or to continue to develop your course design with online dicussions. Bring what you've started on with these Week 4 activities!

Practice & Apply

Option 1: Less time investment

• We've listed four different general instructional scenarios in this Google Doc. Based on the scenarios listed and the two instructional challenges (primary and secondary) indicated for each, decide how each of the four roles can help you meet those challenges and how you might implement elements of these four roles in order to resolve or address these challenges. This can mean brainstorming activities, tech solutions, communications, or pedagogical approaches that fall under those roles and help to meet those challenges.

Option 2: More time investment

• Take one of the 4 instructional scenarios from the Google Doc and imagine what a typical class discussion might entail. How might you integrate online discussions into a course like this? Use your chosen instructional scenario as a template, and redesign one class period in order to accommodate an online discussion component.
• Create a lesson plan of your own for your specific course that integrates online discussions. This can be a lesson plan for one day, for one week, or (if you have time and a vision for how this might work) for an entire online discussion semester-long component.