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Writing Discussions: Guidelines for IDs

Markette Pierce Updated by Markette Pierce

Writing Discussions: Guidelines for IDs

The following guidelines can help IDs write meaningful discussion prompts. Discussion prompts should:

  1. Drive conversation: We want to try to drive students to engage with one another. This is not the place for complex research activities or lengthy personal essays.
  2. Place early in the course: Place early enough within the course for sustained engagement. Ideally, we want students to come back at least once (or even twice) and engage again.
  3. Connect to activity: Tie the discussion prompt directly to previous activities or assignments.
  4. Include student instructions: Include explicit instructions to the students to come back and comment on someone else’s post.

See below for more information on each of these four guidelines.

Drive conversation

  1. Prompt students to give their ideas, reactions, share their relevant experience, pose questions, or take a position.
  2. Invite students to seek (or offer) advice.
  3. An example might be: “Now that you’ve completed activity X, share your experience. Where did you struggle to complete it? What was confusing?  What’s new or interesting to you about this practice?” 
Q: What if you realize the discussion idea that you and your faculty partner came up with during outlining is really a complex activity in disguise?

A: Separate out the complex activity onto its own new Activity page.

  • On the Activity Page, Include a note:
    • Student note: There is no submission requirement for this activity, but you will draw on your results in the required discussion that follows.
  • Rewrite the discussion prompt to focus on students conversing about their experience or their practice in the activity.

Place early in the course

  1. We want to encourage early and sustained (repeat) conversation. If the discussion appears very late in the course, at the very end, then there’s very little chance the students will return for a second bite at the apple.
  2. Faculty authors may request that the discussion appears at the end of the course as a reaction to the final part of the course project. Explain how this actually stifles peer-to-peer engagement.
  3. A good place for a discussion is immediately following challenging material. You don’t have to dazzle students with a very complex, lengthy prompt. An effective discussion prompt can be very simple: “What was surprising/new/interesting to you about this teaching?” or “How does Professor X’s teaching here relate to your work?” etc.

Connect to a previous activity

  1. Use a few words to draw connections to previous activities or assignments.
  2. Examples: “What did you think about Activity X that you completed? What was challenging or new for you? What questions do you still have about Y?” and so on.

Include student instructions to comment on others’ posts

  1. In every case we want to add explicit instructions. Sample instructions exist in the Master Course Template(s), but can be edited to look like some variation of the following:
    1. “You are encouraged to return to this discussion and comment on other students’ posts. Be specific when you reply."
    2. “What do you like about their post?”
    3. “Do you agree with their assessment?”
    4. “What other ideas did their post give you?”
    5. “How can you incorporate what you learned from them?”
    6. “How does their experience compare to yours?”
    7. “What additional insights can you offer?”
  2. Note that we can’t require students to respond to other students’ posts because managing and monitoring second posts is beyond what the facilitators can enforce, so your instructions should stop short of making a second post a requirement.

Check yourself by reviewing this Best Practices Checklist:

  1. Does the prompt foster conversation, not personal essays?
  2. Do the instructions explicitly encourage students to return to the discussion?
  3. Are the peer interaction guidelines specific, telling students how to comment on others’ posts?
  4. Does the placement optimize engagement opportunity?
  5. Are disguised activities separated out?
  6. Is there a connection to course material? I.e., does it:
  7. Reference specific previous activities
  8. Link to current learning challenges
  9. Encourage peer support and problem-solving
  10. Is the prompt clear and concise? If not, try to tighten it up without losing its essence.
  11. Does it use open-ended questions? 
  12. Does it invite personal experience or workplace application sharing?
  13. Can it be answered briefly? (We want to avoid essay-length responses that no one reads.)
  14. Does it encourage peer support and problem solving?
  15. Does it invite students to seek and offer advice?
  16. Does it link to current learning challenges?

How did we do?

Technical Talking Points Template

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