Week 7 Assignment: Discussion Post
By James Landon
Online Discussion Guidelines for Instructors
This week our resources focus on the benefits of using online discussion boards to facilitate learning through open dialogue and collaboration. Dr. Palloff and Dr. Pratt discuss some ideas and strategies to effectively facilitate online discussions in the video, “Assessing Interaction and Collaboration in Online Environments” (Laureate Education Inc., n.d.).
For your initial post, imagine you are required to develop guidelines for online instructors including top strategies to use for discussion board facilitation. Based on your online experience as an instructor or student and the resources you read this week, post your top five strategies for facilitating an online discussion environment. Be sure to include the resources below as well as outside resources to support your ideas.
By Wednesday, respond with your initial post including your top five strategies for facilitating an online discussion. Remember to adhere to APA formatting and utilize external resources as well as the additional resources below.
By Sunday, return to the discussion board and respond to at least two classmates’ posts with a comment, question, insight, clarification, or expansion of the ideas in that post. In addition, monitor your own initial posts for responses by classmates and return a post if a response is appropriate.
Your score this week will be based on this rubric.
Additional Resources:
TeacherStream LLC. (2009). Mastering online discussion board facilitation: Resource Guide. Retrieved from the Edutopia website: http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/stw/edutopia-onlinelearning-mastering-online-discussion-board-facilitation.pdf
Academic Technology and Creative Services. (2009, Spring). Discussion Board: Online Discussions for Blended Learning. Retrieved from the California State University Sacramento website: http://www.csus.edu/webct/faculty/discussion-board-best-practices.pdf
References:
Laureate Education Inc. (n.d.). Assessing interaction and collaboration in online environments [Video podcast]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_2819049_1%26url%3D
