LibGuides: Online Teaching and Course Development: Classroom Community

Discussions

Discussions in Canvas
Utilizing discussion forums in your Canvas course page can be an excellent way of bolstering class discussion and participation, especially when using pre-recorded lectures or in instances where technical difficulties may make student participation during Zoom webinars hard or impossible.

The discussion forums give all students an opportunity (or requirement) to participate in a discussion on whatever topic you choose. This link goes to all of the instructions in Canvas for creating discussions and using them. Additionally, the most relevant are posted below.
How do I create a discussion as an instructor?
"As an instructor, you can create a discussion for your course. This lesson outlines a variety of options to choose from in order to customize a discussion for your course."
How do I delay posting a discussion until a specified date in a course?
"You can delay posting a discussion topic until a specific date by changing a setting in your discussion. This lesson shows how to set posting dates, also referred to as availability dates, for non-graded discussions."
How do I view and sort discussion replies as an instructor?
"You can view all replies in a discussion by scrolling or searching content. Focused discussion replies are shown in hierarchical order; threaded discussions are hierarchical, collapsible, and expandable."
How can I require students to reply to a course discussion before they see other replies?
"You can require that students reply to a discussion before the see any of the other students' replies."

Online Etiquette and Civil Discourse

Below are some guidelines that instructors can share with their learners:

Online Sessions are Recorded
- Everything you post is recorded in most asynchronous online discussions so that you can refer back to it in the future.
How to Craft an Online Response:
- Subject: Enter a new subject for each of your postings. Leaving the default subject tells readers nothing about your topic. Unique subjects allow classmates to understand the flow of conversations and stay on topic.
- If your response is to one person, use their preferred or given name.
- Content: Use complete sentences and clearly communicate your meaning.
- Consider composing offline, editing, and reading out loud to identify misstatements, lack of clarity, or an unintended tone before posting.
- Ensure the posting adds value and contributes to the overall discussion thread.
Agree to disagree
- Throughout the course of any discussion there will be different perspectives. Agree to disagree in your exchange of ideas and opinions. Keep your interactions friendly and professional.
Keep Your Voice Down
- USING ALL CAPITAL LETTERS online is the equivalent of yelling. Instead, bold, italicize, or use *asterisks* around the text to be emphasize

Rovai, A. P. (2007). Facilitating online discussions effectively. The Internet and Higher Education, 10(1), 77-88.
"This article presents a synthesis of the theoretical and research literature on facilitating asynchronous online discussions effectively. Online courses need to be designed so that they provide motivation for students to engage in productive discussions and clearly describe what is expected, perhaps in the form of a discussion rubric. Additionally, instructors need to provide discussion forums for socio-emotional discussions that have the goal of nurturing a strong sense of community within the course as well as group discussion forums for content-and task-oriented discussions that center on authentic topics. In order to facilitate discussions effectively, instructors should generate a social presence in the virtual classroom, avoid becoming the center of all discussions by emphasizing student–student interactions, and attend to issues of social equity arising from use of different communication patterns by culturally diverse students [e.g., Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., and Archer, W. (2001). Critical thinking, cognitive presence, and computer conferencing in distance education. The American Journal of Distance Education, 15(1), 7–23; Rovai, A. P. (2003). Strategies for grading online discussions: Effects on discussions and classroom community in Internet-based university courses. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 15(1), 89–107]."

Group Work

Collaborations
"The Collaborations Index Page allows you to create collaborations for users in your course. You can create new collaborations, edit existing collaborations, and delete collaborations.

If your institution grants permission, students can create collaborations in the course. You can always view any collaboration created by a student in the course, though other students can only view collaborations that have been shared with them. If you have created groups in your course, students can always create collaborations within groups."

Suggested Tips for Working in Groups Online:

Milman, N. B. (2013). Working in groups online: Suggested tips for success. Distance Learning, 10(1), 56-58.

Motivated to Collaborate: A Self-Determination Framework to Improve Group-Based Learning

Inclusion and Diversity

Rachel Baker et al., Race and Gender Biases Appear in Online Education, Brookings (Apr. 27, 2018) (reporting study of responses to fictive students with gendered or racialized names in massive online courses)

Amy Hilbelink, Multicultural Sensitivity in Course Design, eLearn Magazine (May 2019)

Alex Kumi-Yeboah et al., Online Collaborative Learning Activities: The Perceptions of Culturally Diverse Graduate Students, Online Learning, Dec 2017, at 5-28

Karen Milheim, A Fundamental Look at Cultural Diversity and the Online Classroom, eLearn Magazine (2017)

Christy M. Rhodes & Steven W. Schmidt, Culturally Responsive Teaching in the Online Classroom, eLearn Magazine (Nov. 2018)