Online Discussions

The facilitation of online discussions, both synchronously and asynchronously, is an important part of engaging students. This section breaks the topic into four categories:

1. Introductions and Community-Building: Student-to-student conversation, interaction, and support the creation of a comfortable and trusting social presence.
2. Initial Content Engagement: Students think about what they already might know about a new idea, concept, problem, or closely related concept.
3. Investigation and Research: Builds on the student’s understandings and expands the knowledge base needed to apply and use the knowledge.
4. Integration and Documentation: Require students to use their new content knowledge to solve problems, investigate related questions, and make predictions.