Discussions, both with the entire class and in small groups, and group work allow students to talk to each other, not just to the instructor. Their use increases student engagement, helps students develop critical thinking skills, speaking skills, and interpersonal skills.
They can also help an instructor gauge how well students are understanding content, disciplinary methods, and disciplinary vocabulary. They are a high-touch practice.
If you want synchronous, oral discussions, video conferences are the best option. However, there are other options for students to respond to the ideas of their peers. Some also have lighter bandwidth demands and asynchronous options.
As an instructor, you facilitate a chat or forum discussion the same as one in a classroom.
Logistics for text-based discussions in Sakai
Advice
Linda Putchinski (U of Central Florida) gives the following advice for designing discussible prompts:
Like in-class discussions, online discussions, whether synchronous or asynchronous, count as "contact time."
The Workload Estimator 2.0 (Wake Forest U) calculates one 250-word post as counting for one hour (50 minutes) of asynchronous contact time.
You require active participation in a synchronous video conference.
"10 Tips for Effective Online Discussion", from Educase. Within this article is a link to a Discussion Board Guidelines document that you may find helpful for making your expectations for participation in online discussions clear to students.
"How to Host a Cocktail Party on Zoom (and have better classes, conferences and meetings, too)," on Medium, by Misha Glouberman. Excellent advice on using breakout rooms for small-group work."
Building Community," from Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes by Flower Darby and James Lang. The best book for online teaching in the liberal arts tradition. (If you are in a rush, jump to the summary on p.103).
“Discussion prompts,” U of Central Florida, from Teaching Online Pedagogical Repository
"How to Foster More Authentic Discussion," Arizona State U, by Brendan Lake. Recommendations for guidelines to give students for asynchronous discussions.
Annotation tools are a good way to get students working together to comment on a document. They are low-bandwidth options and can be used asynchronously. It is a good idea to "seed" a few questions in the text to get things going. Note: Uploading content that is protected by copyright to these sites may be an infringement. Additionally, if the content came from a library database, uploading would be a violation of our licensing agreements.
Collaborative documents allow students to write together. Also a low-bandwidth option that can be used asynchronously.
Digital whiteboards are available within Zoom and Teams. Microsoft's One Note and even a PowerPoint slide shared in Teams can be used. Best results when used with a tablet and stylus. Results can be saved.
Videoconference breakout rooms allow for an experience closest to that in a classroom and are excellent for incorporating students learning remotely.
Breakout rooms
When all students are online, breakout rooms work very smoothly.
In-class use can be tricky. How well it works depends on the number of students and the arrangement of the classroom.
Collaboration outside of class
Students will need to work with others on group projects. The trick is helping them make initial contact with each other when they cannot chat in class.