Search Results for “online discussions”

Description Online discussions are most effective when students engage in higher order thinking, taking time to reflect and compose original posts. Instructors play a key role in purposefully designing discussion forums that move “student discourse out of the margins of thinking to deeper levels of thought” (Williams, Jaramillo, Peski, 2015, p. 46). The post-first discourse…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: New Online Teaching Practices Added to Open Repository Orlando, Florida, US – Feb 19, 2016 – The editors of the Teaching Online Pedagogical Repository (TOPR) are pleased to announce the new entries accepted for publication from the Fall 2015 TOPR Call for Submissions. Entries were received from faculty and designers in multiple…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: New Online Teaching Practices Added to Open Repository Orlando, Florida, US – Sep 15, 2016 – The editors of the Teaching Online Pedagogical Repository (TOPR) are pleased to announce the new entries accepted for publication from the Spring 2016 TOPR Call for Submissions. Entries were received from faculty and designers in multiple…

One of the major goals of higher education is to cultivate students’ critical thinking skills (Roth, 2010). In order to be prepared for the workplace and to be an informed citizen, students need to be able to base judgments, make decisions, and solve problems based on the careful critique of available evidence. Engagement, defined as…

Selecting an effective discussion topic is important, but does not guarantee an interactive, fruitful discussion. It is crucial for instructor to set the stage and establish clear expectations for how students should participate in the discussion. Learning Objectives Before designing an online discussion, think about what you want your students to learn from the discussion.…

Self‐assessment can play a central role in learning, revisions and review (Andreade & Du, 2007; Weimer, 2010). The self‐assessment process involves a complex process of internalization and self‐regulation, and with implications for research and practice. “Researchers see criteria‐referenced self‐assessment as a key component of self‐regulation with the potential to scaffold other components, including goal‐setting, planning…

Description While students may express a desire for more student-centered collaboration in the discussions, they may not fully understand the responsibility required to achieve it (Kanuka et al., 2007). Along with a thoughtful discussion prompt, facilitation during the discussion is often necessary to support students to engage in critical discourse (DeSmet et al., 2008; Maurino…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: New Online Teaching Practices Added to Open Repository Orlando, Florida, US – December 19, 2014 – The editors of the Teaching Online Pedagogical Repository (TOPR) are pleased to announce the new entries accepted for publication from the Fall 2014 TOPR Call for Submissions. Entries were received from faculty and designers in multiple…

While faculty might hope that students can “just discuss” a topic online with little or no support, Beckett, Amaro‐Jiménez, and Beckett (2010) found that “even doctoral students may need explicit grading instructions, and therefore provide rubrics and sample responses while not stifling creativity” (p. 331). Rubrics provide clear expectations for students regarding how an activity…

Description Discussion prompts are the written “springboard” from which online discussions are launched and are essential to encourage shared understanding (Du, Zhang, Olinzock, & Adams, 2008). Discussion prompts can vary from pithy (e.g., “Discuss [Topic X]”) to verbose (e.g., an entire printed page of instructions). However, the best standard for gauging the effectiveness of a…