Peer review badge Digital #Powerups: Hashtags to Empower Higher-Order Student Engagement in Online Discussions

Description The digital powerups strategy provides an innovative way for instructors to engage students in higher-order online discussion by humanizing and personalizing the discussion. This strategy should be used to allow students to engage in online discussions in relevant and authentic ways. Online discussions can “allow students to participate actively and interact with students and …

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An Alternative Strategy for Using Online Discussions for Learning Course Content in STEM Courses

Description Online discussion boards offer students an opportunity to engage with their peers and instructor in a course outside of the classroom.  The discussion boards are often used to replicate a classroom discussion and have many positive benefits.  It is relatively straightforward to setup and facilitate online discussions where students weigh in on a certain …

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Use Role Play to Increase Student Engagement in Online Discussions

Description As faculty, we are always trying to both stimulate student engagement and assess learning. One method for increasing student engagement that has been gaining in popularity is engaging students in role play activities. These activities can vary in scale from large, multi-day events (such as Reacting to the Past) to smaller activities contained within …

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Encourage Authentic Learning in Online Discussions through Photovoice

Description One of the major challenges in higher education is for students to find relevance and value in the content they are learning in the classroom (Ambrose, 2010). This extends to the online discussion, where students sometimes do not see the value in actively participating the discussion and do the bare minimum to complete the …

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Use a Guided Approach to Support Critical Thinking in Online Discussions

Description Supporting college students to develop critical thinking skills is an overarching goal in higher education. Students with developed critical thinking skills have the ability to evaluate their own arguments as well as others, resolve conflicts, and generate well-reasoned resolutions to complex problems (Behar-Horenstein & Niu, 2011). Given that there is an exponential increase in …

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Peer review badge Bringing Roleplays into the Online Course Environment by Writing Scripts

Description Roleplays are an active learning technique in which students take on the roles of particular stakeholders in a situation they are learning about in order to explore a problem and consider solutions (Beckmann & Mahanty, 2016). Roleplays are commonly used in higher education to introduce students to course content in such a way that …

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Peer review badge Implement “Biographical Disruption” as an Anchor for Critical Reflection in Online Learning

Description Online discussions are a cornerstone of remote learning as they promote active participation and allow for interaction amongst students and between students and faculty (Baglione & Nastanski, 2007), therefore fostering relationship. Indeed, interaction has been highlighted as one of the key factors in determining both faculty and student satisfaction with online learning (Martín-Rodríguez et …

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Peer review badge Using Backward Design to Move Online Courses Forward: Laying the Pedagogical Foundation for High Quality Courses

Description High quality online courses begin with well-thought-out planning and course design. One approach to planning is based on Wiggins and McTighe’s (2005) Understanding by Design curriculum development model, Backward Design. When used to plan an online course, this model can help incorporate the most appropriate pedagogical approaches    to create an engaging course that connects …

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Editorial: Making the Most of Online Discussion Boards

by: Susan Wegmann, Associate Dean of Digital Learning and Innovation, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, and TOPR Editorial Board member In an online course, the discussion board can be a powerful interaction tool or it can be a repository of disingenuous comments made by less than enthusiastic students. Creating and sustaining an effective online discussion seems …

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Peer review badge Boosting Engagement in Research in a Synchronous Online Foreign Language Class: Using an E-Conference Format, Peer-Reviewing and Pressbooks

Description In the COVID new normal, many courses have changed modality or had to displace the face-to-face classroom in an e-campus. The problematic for Humanities courses that heavily rely on research and collaboration is how to redefine the connection between instructor and students, and how to create fruitful research collaboration among students in a delocalized …

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