Managing Your Online Discussion: Advice from a UO Teacher

Regardless of the format you choose, a successful online discussion requires that an appropriate amount of structure be maintained throughout the term. This advice comes from Jennifer Freyd (Psychology), who has been using listservs in her classes for years and is equally applicable to discussin forums on Blackboard. She presents an insightful set of pros and cons for using class listservs, with many suggestions on how to motivate your students to participate.

Why do it? Some Pros and Cons

• Pros:
  • course announcements,
  • lecture notes and corrections,
  • build intellectual community,
  • extend "class time"
  • diverse students:
    • shy/quiet students,
    • ESL students
  • diverse participation,
  • personal relevance/relate material to real life
    
• Cons:
  • access issues for students
  • time consuming for teacher,
  • lots more email
  • students may get unruly/flaming/off-task

How to do it? Some Concrete Suggestions:

• At beginning teach students how to get started (bring a map of the computer labs on campus and info on taking Internet Curriculum courses)
• Require all students join and read (once or twice a week maximum for undergrads)
• Decide: whether posting required or for extra credit? Set minimum and maximum postings (# and length)
• Recommend: 2 email accounts for instructor (separate class mail from professional mail)
• Refer to some helpful web pages
• Give students clear guidelines about listserv goals and acceptable postings
• Instructor presence on listserv: this is very important Optimal presence varies greatly depending on class topic, size, students, goals;
• Sometimes in-class response to list postings is most effective; sometimes posting assignments valuable