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Using Discussion Boards Effectively - Application Ideas

Now that you have had a chance to explore the principles of effective discussion boards, you will explore some discussion board quality practices. As you begin exploring these quality practices, consider the following questions:

• Which of these practices can I see myself using right away?

• Which of these practices should I ask my local S&I supervisor for help with? I want to try them, but I’m not sure how to do them well.

Frequency of Teacher Participation

If teachers reply to every learner discussion board post every week, doing so can overwhelm the discussion and stifle class participation. Participating too much can turn the discussion into a “respond to the teacher” discussion.

• Consider replying to a portion of the class per week instead of everybody. Spread your replies across multiple weeks and multiple discussion boards.

• To keep track of which learners you respond to each week, use a spreadsheet or notebook. For example, indicate which learners you replied to for the current week. When replying in the next discussion, take note of which learners you have already replied to. Once every learner has received a reply from you, start over.

• Be sure to reply to everybody eventually but not all at once in the same discussion board.

Add Variety to Discussion Posts

• Encourage the class to post in multiple ways, including images, text, video, audio, and so on. For example, teachers can challenge learners to reply to the discussion prompt using only pictures. This can help engage learners in thinking about how the picture relates to the discussion.

• Teachers should model these different kinds of posts themselves. Doing so will encourage the class to do the same.

Point Learners to Each Other Using the “@” Mention Feature

Canvas has a feature where users can type the “@” symbol before a name. It will then notify the user that he or she has been mentioned in the discussion. Consider the following scenario.

• Rhonda’s discussion post asks a question. She mentions that she has been struggling with some questions about the Church, but she feels guilty even having them. In the same discussion, Maria has a response about Church questions that may help Rhonda. To connect the two learners, you write the following:
  “Great question, Rhonda. I appreciate your honesty! Having a question about the Church doesn’t mean that you don’t have faith. In fact, @Maria in our class shared a wonderful quote from President Uchtdorf where he encourages us to ask God our questions. Look at @Maria’s post and let me know your thoughts.”

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Discuss with Your Supervisor

Ponder the following questions and how they might apply to your teaching. Prepare to discuss them with your local S&I supervisor.

• Ask your local S&I supervisor how to record and upload audio and video into a discussion board post.

• What other practices have you or your supervisor seen that improved the discussion board experience?

• In all that we do as teachers, we should be helping others to deepen their conversion to Jesus Christ. Discuss an example where you have seen this happen in a discussion board. What did the class do to deepen their conversion to the Savior?