Of course, you’re going to sincerely participate in your online discussions, right? Actually, t hat’s my first bit of advice. To generate honest and open discussions with your students, you need to be honest and open yourself. You’ve got to really participate in the discussion with them, not just stand on the side and make sagacious comments now and then. It’s like the old adage about leadership: don’t ask them to do anything that you’re not willing to do yourself.
In addition, I have three suggestions to make that I have found increases student participation and helps in generating interesting and sometimes passionate discussions:
a. Keep the topics fresh and current. I’m not saying you shouldn’t re-use discussion topics – I do that myself. But keep tabs on them and spruce them up if they start to get a bit dusty. I often scour newspaper stories and science blog sites in search of topics that I can use in my courses. Speaking of newspapers, my doctoral advisor tells a story about a chemistry professor back in his native England. The professor had been teaching for many decades, and had a stack of extremely yellowed pages that he lectured from. One semester, a young man sat in the front row and quite openly read the London Times each day in class. After several days of this, the professor hurled an eraser at the student, knocking the paper from his hands. “Young man! I notice you are not taking any notes,” roared the old man. “That’s quite alright, Sir,” replied the student, “I have a copy of my father’s notes.”
b. Choose topics that your students can connect with. This is related to the first item, but is not identical. One of the most important factors in engaging students is providing them with authentic scenarios and problems to consider. Of course, because they want the points, they will feign interest in almost anything you provide them with. However, they will be much more engaged if you choose topics that are inherently of interest to them. In chemistry, for example, topics that involve explosions, energy use and conservatin, material transformations and the like tend to interest students very much. I’m sure you know topics within your subject that tend to appeal to students as well.
c. Invite them to share their opinions. If the subject is interesting and engaging (and often if it isn’t), students will have an opinion about it. Don’t waste the opportunity to get them to invest themselves personally in the topic. In addition to the dimensions of the discussion that relate to the subject being studied, ask them to share their opinion in some way. You can do this as part of your discussion prompt, or in the course of the discussion itself. Often, the sharing of personal opinions will open up an emotional channel in the discussion that enlivens it and draws more students into the stream. Of course, you have to watch carefully and make sure everyone remains civil, but that’s a much better alternative to trying to drag students into the conversation.
My next post will be on the subject of redirecting discussion – what to do when the conversation lags.
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