The Basics
I now see that developing the backbone of meaningful discussion board work -- which, after all, is new for virtually all students -- takes considerable time that I had never given, and includes the following almost commonsensical elements that might serve as a checklist for others:
- telling students how this activity, in general, will help them learn (a goal/a rationale)
- demonstrating that specific assignments are organic to the learning process at each course moment, not simply ongoing make-work or busywork
- telling students what proper posting engagement should feel like (an image/a metaphor)
- showing students what proper posting should look like, that is, giving them a variety of exemplary models as benchmarks for their posts
- providing ample practice time and ample feedback on their practice efforts (as you would on draft versions of essays) -- that is, providing time to make and correct mistakes
- providing guidelines for the amount of time to spend on posts
- integrating posts visibly into the in-class pedagogy
- establishing rules for responsibility in group interaction assignments
- grading discussion board work on clearly articulated criteria
- judging posts on qualitative as well as quantitative measures (and never grading posts totally on quantitative measures)
- counting discussion board work significantly, not trivially, in the overall grading scheme
