{"id":3042,"date":"2013-11-01T12:56:26","date_gmt":"2013-11-01T12:56:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/learningedge\/?p=3042"},"modified":"2014-11-11T14:38:16","modified_gmt":"2014-11-11T14:38:16","slug":"a-tidal-wave-of-discussion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/learningedge\/2013\/11\/01\/a-tidal-wave-of-discussion\/","title":{"rendered":"A Tidal Wave of Discussion &#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"font-weight: bold;color: #808080\"><i>How active discussion produced\u00a0<\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: bold;color: #808080\"><i><b>outstanding<\/b>* results.<\/i><\/span><\/h2>\n<p align=\"right\">By David Callaghan<\/p>\n<p>Online discussion forums are widely-used in online and blended courses at Edge Hill and increasingly course teams have been exploiting the benefits of these asynchronous online communication tools to support their face-to-face students\u2019 learning. When used effectively, discussion forums have been found to support reflection, deep thinking, peer and collaborative learning (and more), but the challenges of stimulating the \u2018right kind\u2019 of participation (in any course type) presents an interesting topic for new and experienced academics to consider.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve discussed, interviewed and blogged about online discussion before \u2013 but always as an \u2018interested\u2019 observer of practice \u2013 rather than a \u2018committed\u2019 stakeholder. This reminds me of Storming Norman Schwarzkopf\u2019s definition of commitment (he got international leaders to \u2018commit\u2019 750,000 infantry to Operation Desert Storm) \u2013 his definition:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cIf you want to know the difference between being involved and being committed think of a ham and egg breakfast.\u00a0 The chicken is involved but the pig\u2019s committed.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p align=\"right\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/programmes\/b01phm25\" target=\"_blank\">Schwarzkopf in Bannister (2013:3m15s)<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Having recently led a dissertation module for a large cohort of 60 online students, I\u2019d like to share my personal experience of being a \u2018committed\u2019 discussion board leader.<\/p>\n<p>It didn\u2019t start well. \u00a0I had struggled to get any useful discussion in similar \u2018dissertation\u2019 modules \u2013 perhaps because the students were focussed on their own research and didn\u2019t envisage much use knowing what others\u2019 were doing. Further, at the first conference day (in January) when the students were physically present, my question about what type of technology would help their learning elicited little interest.<\/p>\n<h2><b style=\"color: #000000\">A good start<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/EJ7M2cSwcB8\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3061\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/learningedge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/130\/2013\/11\/YouTubeWelcome.png\" alt=\"YouTubeWelcome\" width=\"184\" height=\"284\" \/><\/a>Against this backdrop, my eternal enthusiasm and experience as a Learning Technologist, which told me the right use of this technology could make a difference, prompted my \u2018commitment\u2019 to kick in. In a few hours I had:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Created a couple of discussion boards (or as Blackboard calls them, Forums);<\/li>\n<li>Encouraged students to contribute via the Forum descriptions;<\/li>\n<li>Very quickly \u2018thrown together\u2019 <a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/EJ7M2cSwcB8?t=15s\" target=\"_blank\">a two minute video<\/a> to welcome students to the module &#8211;\u00a0 and within the first 20 seconds has asked them to subscribe to the General and Introduction Chapter discussions;<\/li>\n<li>Sent out an announcement (ticking \u2018Send a copy of this announcement immediately\u2019) to all students with a link to the welcome video.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The first post arrived about an hour after my announcement went out &#8211; with a student offering a YouTube video on \u2018Praise\u2019 that they mentioned at the induction a few days earlier.\u00a0 A trickle soon turned into a torrent, and within a few days the General and Introduction forums became very active with around half the students making postings to the forums.\u00a0 During the first three months there were over 1,000 postings to the discussion boards \u2013 creating what I regard as a very effective support mechanism for distance students.\u00a0 At the end of the course over two thirds of the cohort were active participants in the discussions and the cohort had made a total of 2,573 posts.<\/p>\n<h2><b>Sustainability<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>From observing excellent practice in the Faculty of Education by Deborah Humphreys (see earlier post: <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/learningedge\/2013\/04\/30\/the-secrets-of-online-discussion\/\" target=\"_blank\">&#8216;The secrets of Online Discussion&#8217;<\/a>) and Wendy Dixon (UG Professional Development) what comes across clearly is the need to have a presence (Garrison, <i>et al.<\/i>, 2000) \u2013 checking the forums frequently and replying promptly to posts (Hodges &amp; Cowan, 2012) &#8211; perhaps with further questions or thoughts to encourage further discussion.\u00a0 As I had subscribed to the two forums I was notified the instant someone posted \u2013 so frequent checking wasn\u2019t necessary \u2013 and I was able to respond very quickly to postings, especially if some redirection was required.<\/p>\n<p>My driver for responding quickly was informed by Gilly Salmon\u2019s (2004) model suggesting that tutors should be very involved in the early stages of an online discussion and that as time goes on the tutor can move from being a leader to become more of a facilitator and \u2018encourager\u2019 chiming with Sugata Mitra\u2019s \u2018<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/technology-17114718\" target=\"_blank\">Granny Cloud<\/a>\u2019.\u00a0 My aim was to step back and allow the community to respond to posts.\u00a0 Others\u2019 have developed this with the analogy of a \u2018ghost in the wings\u2019 (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0360131505000990\" target=\"_blank\">Mazzolini and Maddison, 2007<\/a>); there is evidence that this happened in this course \u2013 moving from superficial notes about spelling mistakes etc. through to, towards the end of the course, some very insightful and effective comments on peers draft chapters.<\/p>\n<p>Regarding the \u2018Community\u2019, during my telephone tutorials I sometimes asked how the group knew each other before the course and was rather surprised to hear that most of them had never met until the conference day \u2013 challenging my notion that creating an \u2018online\u2019 community was more challenging than in a classroom.\u00a0 This echoes Pelz\u2019s notion that \u2018\u2026 online students bond earlier and \u2018better\u2019 than students sitting in the same classroom\u2019 (2004:41).<\/p>\n<p>Reflecting on how I engaged with the discussion, here are some of the things I did, indeed continue to do, that help create such a lively and useful discussion:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Use my postings to model what I want the students to do;<\/li>\n<li>Post links to resources or uploaded materials \u2013 from Edge Hill and beyond;<\/li>\n<li>Acknowledge valuable contributions from students publically on the discussion board \u2013 especially those that offered critique of their peers\u2019 drafts (note many of my postings began \u2018With thanks to Alice, Bernard and Cath for their insightful contributions\u2019 \u2026);<\/li>\n<li>Sending private thanks to people who consistently made useful contributions;<\/li>\n<li>Prioritising my time in order to respond to drafts that students had posted on the discussion board \u2013 thus encouraging more postings to a public arena and posting back comments on drafts so that instead of feedback being to a cohort of one it was to the cohort of all;<\/li>\n<li>When to jump in? At the beginning I found balancing waiting for students to respond versus replying myself to unanswered postings a difficult balance . Towards the end of the course I tried to leave for two days before I responded;<\/li>\n<li>Using the notification tool to thank all those that had been engaging;<\/li>\n<li>Using the same tool to invite contribution from those who weren\u2019t engaging;<\/li>\n<li>Using the same tool to find those who were not engaging at all, and send an email to their personal email address;<\/li>\n<li>Ditto, but phone them;<\/li>\n<li>Ditto, but using their mobile phones;<\/li>\n<li>If questionable practice arises, drown it out with a quick \u2018here\u2019s a much better alternative\u2019 (redirection \u2013 I\u2019m sure there\u2019s some psychology link here);<\/li>\n<li>When I have a tutorial with students, I ask them to summarise what they think would be useful for others\u2019 to hear and post this on the relevant discussion.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Challenges<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>The most challenging aspect was keeping on top of all the discussion as there were so many students \u2013 as well as the pressure to produce polished responses that were instantly displayed to the whole cohort (Bair &amp; Bair, 2011).\u00a0 Also, constructing replies to questionable practice that re-directed the group without disenfranchising the poster was challenging.<\/p>\n<h2>Results, feedback and costs<\/h2>\n<p>The results were outstanding, with 57% of the cohort achieving a First Class mark for their <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/learningedge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/130\/2013\/11\/TidalWaveGradeBook.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-3056\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/learningedge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/130\/2013\/11\/TidalWaveGradeBook-300x263.png\" alt=\"TidalWave GradeBook\" width=\"300\" height=\"263\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/learningedge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/130\/2013\/11\/TidalWaveGradeBook-300x263.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/learningedge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/130\/2013\/11\/TidalWaveGradeBook-342x300.png 342w, https:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/learningedge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/130\/2013\/11\/TidalWaveGradeBook.png 789w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>dissertation.\u00a0 I had grave concerns about collusion when I began marking as the first dozen or so scripts were outstanding, however, apart from some similarities referencing the Data Protection Act, each piece was highly original and very polished. This increased my concern about the cost to the students and their families of the many hours that each of them had put into this final piece; was I complicit in adding to their study burden by creating a demanding on line environment?<\/p>\n<p>So, at graduation, I was rather concerned to meet those who I may have driven apart &#8211; but my concerns vanished as fathers, husbands and daughters came up to me and thanked me (rather enthusiastically) for the support, help and encouragement that I had given their loved ones.\u00a0 I should point out, though, that most of what I was being thanked for was given by their fellow students &#8211; I had become a broker of peers rather than a purveyor of learning.<\/p>\n<h2><b>Research into wider aspects<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>I will be asking the students if I can explore their posts, our journey, to look at aspects such as how I may have facilitated my social presence in online forums (Savvidou, 2013), Sociability (Smith &amp; Sivo, 2013) and the learners \u2018Sense of Presence\u2019 (Sung &amp; Mayer, 2013).<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m also interested in the emotional aspects of the discussion.\u00a0 Cleveland-Innes and Campbell (2013) suggest that \u2018\u2026emotion must be considered, if not a central factor, at least as a ubiquitous, influential part of learning\u2014online and otherwise\u2019.\u00a0 Another ethereal aspect was recently highlighted by a colleague who suggests that underpinning my pedagogy was\/is my belief that the technology and how I was implementing it would benefit the student experience and improve outcomes and results \u2013 emphasising to me that my faith that it would work <b>made it work<\/b> \u2013 justifying my sometimes \u2018evangelistic\u2019 encouragement for others to do the same.\u00a0 To me, this sounds rather like the \u2018heart and soul\u2019 of online learning.<\/p>\n<h2><b>Conclusion<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>At the outset I didn\u2019t have an explicit rationale for using discussion boards \u2013 but as the course progressed the rational emerged:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Engage students with the course and the tutor;<\/li>\n<li>Engage students with each other;<\/li>\n<li>Benefit from an \u2018active\u2019 learning approach;<\/li>\n<li>Build on relationships made during the conference day;<\/li>\n<li>Reduce isolation for distance learners;<\/li>\n<li>Share resources and materials found;<\/li>\n<li>Capture conversations that others can share (note the search tool!);<\/li>\n<li>Questions that may have been answered to just one person went to the entire cohort;<\/li>\n<li>Look at drafts of others\u2019 work \u2013 perhaps to inform their own writing;<\/li>\n<li>Become more aware of other perspectives;<\/li>\n<li>Have an audience in mind when creating their own drafts;<\/li>\n<li>Comment on other students drafts;<\/li>\n<li>Have a safe community to ask and answer questions within.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I was especially pleased to see in later weeks the confidence and trust in the community grow, as evidenced by students becoming \u2018critical friends\u2019 \u2013 making critical judgements of peers\u2019 work \u2013 having a sense of empowerment.<\/p>\n<p>If any of the above isn&#8217;t clear then ask me \u2013 my contact details are below.\u00a0 Also, here is a technical guide to using the Blackboard \u2018<a href=\"http:\/\/www.eshare.edgehill.ac.uk\/2531\/\" target=\"_blank\">Discussion Boards \/ Forums<\/a>\u2019 from colleagues in Learning Technology Development.\u00a0 Finally, both the Faculty of Education and Learning Technology Development are very keen to promote staff development in this area \u2013 so if your team might benefit from some bespoke training, please get in touch \u2013 contact details below.<\/p>\n<p>I suggest that the support and guidance the students shared with each other via the discussion board and the collegiality created via their online discussion and Collaborate sessions was a significant factor in the cohort\u2019s exemplary success *.\u00a0 I encourage colleagues to try some of the ideas I\u2019ve presented above in their courses \u2013 and will be pleased to discuss this further.\u00a0\u00a0 Please take a look at a presentation based on my and the students\u2019 experiences &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eshare.edgehill.ac.uk\/id\/document\/9398\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.eshare.edgehill.ac.uk\/id\/document\/9398<\/a><\/p>\n<p>* 57% received a First Class grade in the dissertation module (n=47).<b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/learningedge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/130\/2012\/12\/BestofTEL_SMALL.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1866\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/learningedge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/130\/2012\/12\/BestofTEL_SMALL.jpg\" alt=\"BestofTEL_SMALL\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>David Callaghan<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Associate Tutor, Professional Development<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Faculty of Education\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>AND<br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>Learning Technology Development Officer<br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>Learning Services<br \/>\n<\/strong><a href=\"mailto:David.callaghan@edgehill.ac.uk\"><b>David.Callaghan@edgehill.ac.uk<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b><\/b><strong>For further help, support and advice on how you can use Discussion, Tracking, Web Conferencing (Collaborate) and other tools within the Learning Edge Suite contact your Learning Technologist (see the Faculty Contacts on <a href=\"https:\/\/go.edgehill.ac.uk\/wiki\/display\/ls\/Develop+my+Learning+Edge\" target=\"_blank\">this page<\/a>) or email the LTD Team on <a href=\"mailto:LTDSupport@edgehill.ac.uk\">LTDSupport@edgehill.ac.uk<\/a> or x7754.\u00a0 Also, see the LTD Guide about Blackboard <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eshare.edgehill.ac.uk\/2531\/\" target=\"_blank\">Discussion Boards<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"right\"><strong>David Callaghan, 1<sup>st<\/sup> November 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n<h6><strong>References<\/strong><\/h6>\n<h6><\/h6>\n<h6><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/programmes\/b01phm25\" target=\"_blank\"><i>An American General, a legendary radio producer, a former Times editor, a British composer, a cricket commentator.<\/i> M. Bannister. [Web] [Sun 6 Jan 2013]. London: BBC.<\/a><\/h6>\n<h6><\/h6>\n<h6><a href=\"http:\/\/digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu\/ij-sotl\/vol5\/iss2\/10\/?utm_source=digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu%2Fij-sotl%2Fvol5%2Fiss2%2F10&amp;utm_medium=PDF&amp;utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages\" target=\"_blank\"><i>Bair, D. E., and Bair, M. A. (2011). Paradoxes of online teaching. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning<\/i>, <strong>5(<\/strong>2), 1\u201315<\/a><\/h6>\n<h6><\/h6>\n<h6><a href=\"http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1016\/S1096-7516(00)00016-6\" target=\"_blank\">Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., &amp; Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment:\u00a0Computer conferencing in higher education. <i>The Internet and Higher Education<\/i>,\u00a02<b>, pp87\u2013105.<\/b><\/a><\/h6>\n<h6><\/h6>\n<h6><a href=\"http:\/\/files.eric.ed.gov\/fulltext\/EJ972455.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Hodges, C. B. and Cowan, S. F. Preservice Teachers&#8217; Views of Instructor Presence in Online Courses. (2012)\u00a0<i>Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education<\/i>\u00a0<b>28<\/b>(4) pp139-145.<\/a><\/h6>\n<h6><\/h6>\n<h6><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0360131505000990\" target=\"_blank\">Mazzolini, M. and Maddison, S. (2007) When to jump in: The role of the instructor in online discussion forums.\u00a0<i>Computers &amp; Education,\u00a0<\/i><b>49\u00a0<\/b>(2) 193-213.<\/a><\/h6>\n<h6><\/h6>\n<h6><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ccri.edu\/distancefaculty\/pdfs\/Online-Pedagogy-Pelz.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Pelz, B. (2004) Three principles of effective online pedagogy. <i>Journal of the Asynchronous Learning Network<\/i>, <b>8<\/b>(3), pp33\u201346.<\/a><\/h6>\n<h6><\/h6>\n<h6><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/dp\/0415335442\" target=\"_blank\">Salmon, G. (2004) E-moderating: The key to teaching and learning online. London: Routledge.<\/a><\/h6>\n<h6><\/h6>\n<h6><a href=\"http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1080\/1475939X.2013.787267\" target=\"_blank\">Savvidou, C. &#8220;\u2018Thanks for sharing your story\u2019: the role of the teacher in facilitating social presence in online discussion.&#8221; <i>Technology, Pedagogy and Education<\/i> ahead-of-print (2013): 1-19.<\/a><\/h6>\n<h6><\/h6>\n<h6><a href=\"http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1111\/j.1467-8535.2011.01223.x\/abstract\" target=\"_blank\">Smith, J.A. and Sivo, S.A. (2012) &#8220;Predicting continued use of online teacher professional development and the influence of social presence and sociability.&#8221; <i>British Journal of Educational Technology<\/i> <b>43<\/b>(6) pp871-882.<\/a><\/h6>\n<h6><\/h6>\n<h6><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/technology-17114718\" target=\"_blank\">Wakefield, J. (2012)\u00a0<i>Granny army helps India&#8217;s school children via the cloud.\u00a0<\/i>http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/technology-17114718\u00a0[accessed 11\/04\/2013].<\/a><\/h6>\n<h6><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How active discussion produced\u00a0outstanding* results. By David Callaghan Online discussion forums are widely-used in online and blended courses at Edge Hill and increasingly course teams have been exploiting the benefits of these asynchronous online communication tools to support their face-to-face students\u2019 learning. When used effectively, discussion forums have been found to support reflection, deep thinking, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":1867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24373,24335,24338],"tags":[24383,24369,1673,11098,11084,24414],"class_list":["post-3042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guest-blog","category-blackboard-learning-edge","category-collaborate","tag-discussion","tag-eassessment","tag-forum","tag-learning-edge","tag-staff-development","tag-student-engagement"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A Tidal Wave of Discussion ... - Digital Learning<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edgehill.ac.uk\/learningedge\/2013\/11\/01\/a-tidal-wave-of-discussion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Tidal Wave of Discussion ... - Digital Learning\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How active discussion produced\u00a0outstanding* results. By David Callaghan Online discussion forums are widely-used in online and blended courses at Edge Hill and increasingly course teams have been exploiting the benefits of these asynchronous online communication tools to support their face-to-face students\u2019 learning. 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