Facilitation and Response: Discussion Best Practices

Best Practices for Online Discussion: 16 Quality, Timing, and Value Added Response Tips

Expertly facilitated online discussion is the driving force for community in e-learning classes. Creating norms for discussion quality and timing improve the dialog. This also helps the facilitator step back as students learn to deepen their online dialog.
The following quality, timing, and response tips were suggested by my network of e-learning professionals and by the participants in E-Learning for Educators, part of the UW-Stout E-Learning and Online Teaching Graduate Certificate Program.

8 Quality and Timing Tips for Online Discussion:

1. Focus on the prompt; follow the directions in the prompt closely.
2. Respond to those who respond to you! This is essential!
3. Avoid short "Me too" or "I agree" posts. Make your posts substantial
4. Add value to the discussion (see below).
5. Post early in the week. You'll get more response and become more engaged in conversation.
6. Respond throughout the week; you help sustain the dialog.
7. Avoid doing all of your posting at the end of the week. You miss out on interaction.
8. Use direct quotations from your text or online source. (Cite the source so your reader can find it.)

8 Value Added Response Techniques:

1. Ask a specific question (but avoid prompting yes or no answers).
2. Ask an open ended (on topic) question that invites a response.
3. Expand on the a specific element of the post.
4. Provide a teaching story that illustrates the a main idea.
5. Offer a different perspective on an essential idea in the post.
6. Provide an online resource relevant to the topic (include a hyperlink).
7. Describe a method you use in your practice.
8. Provide a summary of the ideas posted so far (good when you come late to the conversation).

Please Share tips and techniques you use to improve online discussion!

Confessions of a Converted Lecturer: Eric Mazur

Eric Mazur: "I thought I was a good teacher until I discovered my students were just memorizing information rather than learning to understand the material. Who was to blame? The students? The material? I will explain how I came to the agonizing conclusion that the culprit was neither of these. It was my teaching that caused students to fail! I will show how I have adjusted my approach to teaching and how it has improved my students' performance significantly." 


Eric Mazur is the Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University. An internationally recognized scientist and researcher, he leads a vigorous research program in optical physics and supervises one of the largest research groups in the Physics Department at Harvard University.





Dr. Mazur is author or co-author of 243 scientific publications and 12 patents. He has also written on education and is the author of Peer Instruction: A User's Manual (Prentice Hall, 1997), a book that explains how to teach large lecture classes interactively. In 2006 he helped produce the award-winning DVD Interactive Teaching. (also see:  Peer Instruction: Ten years of experience and results.)