Last Updated: 4/08/20

10 STRATEGIES FOR ENGAGING DISCUSSIONS ONLINE

The strategies covered here apply to online as well as in-person discussions, but they are more
critically needed online. You can get away with less orchestration in person; the power of
embodiment!

Table of Contents

1. Provide opportunities for students to get to know each other, and to get to
know you.
2. Collectively set norms for formal, and informal, discussions.
3. Use questions or prompts that elicit a variety of perspectives.
4. Keep discussions structured, and vary the structure.
5. Ensure equitable participation.
6. Explicitly integrate discussions into the course arc.
7. Evaluate the success of discussions along different dimensions.
8. Encourage students to bring outside experiences into class discussions.
9. Highlight skills that are transferable from discussion to other domains.
10. Empower students to lead discussions.
References
Stanford Resources

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1. Provide opportunities for students to get to know each other, and to get to know you. [1]

How you can do this:

● Devise assignments that invite students to share about themselves and to work together.

● Form students into small groups (2-4) to converse on non-course topics agreed on as a
class.
● Start a Canvas Discussion where each member of the class (including you) uploads a photo
of an object and adds some brief text on why the object is personally meaningful.
● Integrate Harmonize into your Canvas course to allow for multi-media introductions.

● Create a welcome video, post a brief bio, communicate 1:1 with each student at least once.

2. Collectively set norms for formal, and informal, discussions. [2],[3]

How you can do this:

● Brainstorm individually on candidate norms.

● Contribute candidate norms to a common Canvas page.

● Discuss instructor-vetted candidates over Canvas, and/or vote on Canvas PollEverywhere.

● Ensure that norms cover:

o inclusion (eg, how to disagree respectfully, how to convey hurt or apologies)
o humanization (eg, referring to people by name, allowing humor)
o instructor presence (eg, how often students can expect your participation)

● Revisit norms regularly and update as needed.

3. Use questions or prompts that elicit a variety of perspectives.[4],[5]

How you can do this:

● Put authors or studies in dialogue with one another (eg, “A says x, and B says y. Whom do
you think presents a more accurate picture of z, and why?”), or ask students to craft
imaginary dialogues between opposing views.

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● Pose problems to be solved (eg, “Generate at least three different proofs for q.”, or “How
could we design an experiment to test for x, while controlling for y?’, or “Passage 1 presents
a case for A, but passage 2 seems to be saying not-A. How can these be reconciled?”)
● Pose provocative questions (eg, “The author argues that democracy is equalizing, but the
USA is a democracy filled with inequality. How can we defend the author’s position?”)
● Pose personal questions (eg, “The author argues that democracy is equalizing. Based on
forms of government you have experienced, either as a citizen (national) or a leader (class
president), why do you agree, or disagree, with the author?”).
● Present images, data, text, or other media that allow for multiple interpretations.

*Given that students inhabit distant learning environments with varying levels of surveillance and monitoring,
instructors need to be mindful of posing only those prompts that students can answer safely.

4. Keep discussions structured, and vary the structure.[6]

How you can do this:

● Avoid discussion prompts that provide no guidance on how students should organize their
responses (eg, “What reactions did you have to this reading?”), or that provide guidance
solely in terms of word count or response numbers (eg, “Write a post of 100-150 words”,
“Respond to at least two others” ).
● Stagger prompts and posts so that students can revisit their initial ideas based on peer
responses and/or further thinking (eg, “Now that two days have passed, read your peers’
responses and revisit your initial post. Do you still agree with what you wrote? Why/not?”)

● The Discussion Book (available online through SUL) offers 50 different ways to structure
discussions. Consider question brainstorms, debates, quotation-based discussions,
understanding checks, drawing discussions (Canvas discussion allows photos to be
uploaded), and plenty of others that can be adapted to the online format.
● Allow students to conduct discussion in multiple modalities, for eg, through written text,
images, brief videos, screencasts, or audio clips.
● Synthesize significant trends or points of (dis)agreement that emerge in every discussion
to achieve provisional closure. This can be done by the instructor or by students, and can
take different forms: a verbal summary, a concept map, an argument tree, or Sketchnoting.

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5. Ensure equitable participation.[7],[8],[9]

How you can do this:

● Set Canvas discussion options so that students post first before seeing replies.
● Enable smaller-group discussions over Canvas as well as conducting all-class discussions.

● Assign roles to students in smaller-group discussions, such as

○ Facilitator: Launches and maintains discussion, periodically summarizes,

synthesizes main ideas at the end
○ Questioner: Raises alternatives to consider

○ Equity Monitor: Encourages all members to share their ideas

○ Scribe: Tracks and records ideas (during synchronous conversation; in a discussion
thread, all students contribute in writing)
● Deploy a conversation tracker for students to conduct and capture discussions with a
variety of peers.
● Limit the frequency of your own responses to encourage greater student participation.
● Highlight at least one contribution from every student during the quarter, and self-monitor
to ensure that some students are not consistently highlighted more than others.

6. Explicitly integrate discussions into the course arc.[10]

How you can do this:

● Explain to students how different discussions serve different learning goals of the course
(eg, “One of our learning goals in the course is to evaluate the merits of x. The readings for
today present important challenges to one category of x, so the main purpose of our
discussion today is to determine whether those challenges speak decisively against x.”)
● Connect discussions to specific assignments (Eg, “Our discussion today will focus on the
pros and cons of ‘mixed methods’ data collection. This will prove useful when you justify
your methods of data collection in your final research project.”)
● Administer a pre- and post-survey of student views so they can see how their minds
changed through discussion, over a single, pivotal discussion and/or over the whole course.

7. Evaluate the success of discussions along different dimensions. [11],[12]

How you can do this:

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● Ask students to submit brief reflections on main takeaways from particular discussions.
● Diagnose for students when and why class discussions have, or have not, made progress
towards learning goals.
● Ask students to periodically assess the success of discussions relative to the class norms,
through a discussion thread or poll.
● Provide, or have students create, a rubric for assessing their contributions in discussion.

8. Encourage students to bring outside experiences into class discussions. [13]

How you can do this

● Incorporate out-of-class activities to be debriefed and discussed, for eg, kitchen
experiments, neighborhood walks, interviews or conversations with family or friends.
● Ask students to collect testimonials relevant to class issues, eg: common misconceptions
around core concepts, immigration stories, ethical dilemmas, user experiences.
● Ask students to teach a class concept to someone not in the class and reflect on the
experience as a way to generate their own questions for future discussions.

9. Highlight skills that are transferable from discussion to other domains. [14], [15]

How you can do this:

● Use alignment with, and violation of, class norms as a reference point for drawing attention
to general skills that discussion helps foster, eg: clear and succinct communication,
providing reasons or evidence for what one says, attentive listening, empathy or
appreciation for different perspectives, honestly and respectfully voicing disagreement,
changing one’s mind based on reasons others provide.
● Guide students in connecting the skills practiced during class discussions to their other
goals in life, eg: listening better to friends, disagreeing with loved ones, empathizing with
different political views, or communicating more clearly.

10. Empower students to lead discussions. [16],[17],[18],[19]

How you can do this:

● To enable practice leading discussions on a smaller scale, assign students roles in small-
group discussions and ensure that Facilitator is a role (covered under #5 above). This
can occur in synchronous conversation, or by moderating a discussion thread.

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● Provide students with explicit guidance on how they can prepare to lead a larger class
discussion, how to structure their facilitation, and how to reflect upon and learn from
their experience.
● Provide timely feedback on what went well and what changes to consider for next time.

References

[1] Swan and Shih (2005). On the Nature and Development of Social Presence in Online Course
Discussions. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks. 9(3): 115-136.
[2] Brookfield and Preskill. (2014). Discussion as a Way of Teaching: Tools and Techniques for
Democratic Classrooms. Jossey-Bass.
[3] Theobald et. al. (2017). Student Perception of Group Dynamics Predicts Individual
Performance: Comfort and Equity Matter. PloS one 12(7).
[4] Richardson, J. (2009). Students’ Perceptions of Various Instructional Strategies in Online
Discussions. Annual Conference of the American Educational Research Association.
[5] Bean, J. (2011). Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking,
and Active Learning in the Classroom. Jossey-Bass.
[6] Brookfield and Preskill. (2016). The Discussion Book. Jossey-Bass.
[7] Tanner, K. (2013). Structure Matters: Twenty-One Teaching Strategies to Promote Student
Engagement and Cultivate Classroom Equity. CBE Life Sciences Education. 12(3): 322-331.
[8] Cohen, E. (1994). Restructuring the Classroom: Conditions for productive small groups.
Review of Educational Research 64(1): 1-35.
[9] Mazzolini and Maddison. (2007). When to Jump In: the Role of the Instructor in Online
Discussion Forums. Computers and Education. 49(2): 193-213.
[10] Wiggins and McTigh. (2005). Understanding by Design. Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development.
[11] Gilbert and Dabbagh. (2005). How to Structure Online Discussions for Meaningful Discourse:
A Case Study. British Journal of Educational Technology. 36(1): 5-18.
[12] Harbin, Justin. Lancaster Bible College, Rubric for Discussion Posts
[13] Kuh, G. (1995). The Other Curriculum: Out-of-Class Experiences Associated with Student
Learning and Personal Development. The Journal of Higher Education. 66(2): 123-155.
[14] Valle et. al (2003). Multiple Goals, Motivation, and Academic Learning. British Journal of
Educational Psychology. 73:71-87.
[15] Yeager et. al. (2014). Boring but Important: A self-transcendent purpose for learning fosters
academic self-regulation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 107(4): 559-580.

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[16] Breunig, M. (2005). Turning Experiential Education and Critical Pedagogy Theory into
Practice. Journal of Experiential Education 28(2): 106-122.
[17] Snyder and Dringus. (2014). An Exploration of Metacognition in Asynchronous Student-Led
Discussions: A Qualitative Inquiry. Journal of Online Learning. 18(2).
[18] Trujillo and Wieman. (Spring 2020). Discussion Guide. EDUC 280/Physics 295, Learning and
Teaching of Science.
[19] Gilmartin, Sheppard, and Muller. (Winter 2019). Discussion Debrief Assignment. ENGR
117/217, CSRE 117, FEMGEN 117/217, Expanding Engineering Limits.

Stanford Resources

Pedagogy Support
Teach Anywhere: This website features best practices, frequently asked questions, and
information on tools such as Canvas and Zoom to support your remote instruction.
How to Convert a Small Seminar to an Online Course. Lauri Dietz, Associate Director for
Faculty Support and Pedagogy (SIS, VPUE).
Online Learning Activity Options and Tools. Jenae Cohn, Academic Technology Specialist
(PWR, VPUE) and Diane Lam, Associate Director, Faculty and Lecturer Programs (CTL).
Stanford Online Course Creation Essentials, Stanford Center for Professional Development
Online Teaching Guide from the Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education (VPUE)
Online Teaching Guide from the School of Medicine (SoM)
Online Teaching Guide from the Graduate School of Business (GSB)
Teaching Consultations: Get your questions answered by a trained CTL consultant.
Accessibility, Equity, and Well-Being
10 Strategies for Creating Inclusive and Equitable Online Learning Environments (CTL)
Stanford Office of Accessible Education
Stanford Online Accessibility Program
Stanford Universal Design for Learning
Red Folder Spring 2020 from Stanford Vaden Health Services
Tech support
Stanford Canvas
Canvas Zoom

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