Categories: Communication Design, Technology
Summary:
Rovai presented a synthesis of best practices and theory about facilitating online discussions. His main points centered on the use of discussion rubrics, social presence, social equality, encouraging student-to-student interactions, and meeting the student motivational and emotional needs.
Citation-worthy:
"Social learning theory focuses on learning that occurs within a social context and involves personal experiences, observations, and interactions with other individuals" (Rovai, 2007, p. 77).
"The theoretical framework used in this article is that of creating and sustaining a constructivist online learning environment. Constructivism is a philosophy of learning based on the notion that individuals construct their own understandings through experience, maturation, and interaction with the environment, especially active interaction with other learners and the instructor (e.g., Bangert, 2004; Partlow & Gibbs, 2003; Rovai, 2004). Accordingly, the defining characteristic of an online constructivist learning environment is discourse, typically in the form of online discussions. Discussion provides learners with opportunities to write, and in doing so, reflect on course content and previous postings by members of the learning community (MacKnight, 2000). Lebow (1993) suggests a constructivist learning environment should possess the following minimum requirements:
• Provision for the knowledge construction process.
• Encouragement of self-awareness of the knowledge construction process.
• Provision for appreciation of multiple perspectives.
• Use of learning tasks that are relevant and authentic.
• Encouragement of ownership and voice in the learning process.
• Learning embedded in social experience.
• Encouragement of the development of multiple modes of representation" (Rovai, 2007, p. 78).
"Drawing on the professional literature and the experiences of the author as an online instructor, an effective strategy for designing a framework for and facilitating online discussions proposed in this article is outlined below.
Design
○ Generate motivation for students to engage in productive discussions, such as grading online discussions, allowing students to choose discussion topics, and contextualizing discussions by drawing on diverse learner backgrounds and perspectives of a topic.
○ Describe the ground rules for online discussions at the start of the course by clearly describing what is expected of students, perhaps using a participation rubric.
○ Provide opportunities for socio-emotional discussions that have the goal of nurturing a strong sense of community within the course.
○ Similarly, provide opportunities for authentic content-and task-oriented discussions. For large class enrollments use group forums rather than class-wide forums.
Facilitation
○ Develop social presence in the virtual classroom.
○ Avoid becoming the center of all discussions, emphasize student-to-student interactions.
○ Attend to issues of social equity based on different cultural communication patterns.
○ Attend to issues of social equity based on different gender-related communication patterns.
○ Increase the status of low status students in order to promote equitable collaborations" (Rovai, 2007, p. 79).
"Online course designers should provide opportunities for personal relationships to develop. Brown (2001) outlines three stages of building community using CMC based on her research:
• Making online acquaintances. Students who sense common interests begin to make contact and form relationships.
• Sensing community acceptance. Students who interact in a thoughtful way over time begin to accept each other.
• Achieving camaraderie. Students feel a sense of rapport, trust, goodwill, and friendship for each other.
"Provide discussion forums for content-and task-oriented authentic discussions that support collaborative group activities and the construction of content knowledge. Authentic topics address “real-life” challenges that adults can relate to and that provide a recognizable context for learning" (Rovai, 2007, p. 81).
"Discussions need to be structured so that students understand expectations" (Rovai, 2007, p. 82).
"A challenge for the online instructor in establishing and maintaining social presence is to show that student postings are read without the instructor becoming the center of all discussions. Meeting this challenge is more an art than a science as instructor communication behavior is influenced by a number of factors, including how well the instructor and students are acquainted, level of classroom community, and the content area. Facilitating online discussions requires special skills; inspiring and managing group discussions are not easy, and the skills of the facilitator have a tremendous impact on the construction of knowledge and community building" (Rovai, 2007, p. 82).
"The following instructor behaviors are also useful in promoting social presence:
• Access the discussion forums each day in order to keep up with the conversations.
• Post at least one message per day in group discussion boards to suggest postings are being read. However, allow learners time for reflection. Postings can be as simple as expressing appreciation, agreement, support, and encouragement. Avoid being sharp or overly critical.
• Maintain a focused discussion and periodically summarize what has or needs to be done (MacKnight, 2000).
• Encourage student dialog by asking thought-provoking questions that stimulate in-depth, reflective discussions and hold students responsible for their thinking (MacKnight, 2000).
82 A.P. Rovai / Internet and Higher Education 10 (2007) 77–88
• Reply immediately after receiving a message via e-mail to acknowledge receipt; indicate when a complete response will be provided" (Rovai, 2007, pp. 82-83).
"Emphasize student-to-student interactions in course dialog" (Rovai, 2007, p. 83).
"Some principles for [student-to-student] the online instructor to follow include:
• Do not respond too quickly to a posting in order to provide the opportunity for students to respond first.
• Instead of mostly making statements or directly answering questions, which will likely terminate productive discourse, ask probing questions and provide encouragement.
• Provide closure to discussion threads after discussion topics have run their course or assign specific students responsibility for providing closure.
• Attend to problems that can disrupt student discussions, particularly aggressive communication that can silence some students.
• Deal tactfully and privately with students who dominate discussions or who remain silent, perhaps by phone conversation or e-mail, in order to create a more equitable communication environment" (Rovai, 2007, p. 83).
"[Cultural Communication] Principles for the instructor to follow include:
• Get students to know each other and learn about their respective backgrounds and learning goals.
• Create a variety of social learning activities that allow multiple opportunities for demonstrating knowledge and skill proficiencies designed to address the diverse range of learning preferences and communication patterns that students bring to instructional environments (Bangert, 2004).
• Recognize and respond to communication patterns that can silence some students. For example, recognize putdowns and alienating or competitive dialog and respond privately to offending students to encourage them to be more inclusive.
• Encourage all students to participate in discussions; use the telephone or e-mail to privately confer with students who remain silent in order to determine the cause" (Rovai, 2007, p. 85).
"Expectation States Theory (Berger, Cohen, & Zelditch, 1966) predicts that students with relatively low status with their peers will interact with classmates less frequently and will learn less than high status students. Minority students, in particular, may be considered low status by their majority white peers... Principles for the instructor to follow include:
• Intervene indirectly to equalize students' status in the classroom by raising the status of those students with lower status by recognizing the importance of their roles and creating problems or discussion topics that require multicultural perspectives.
• Publicly recognize the work students have accomplished, paying particular attention to low status students, through actions such as giving praise, citing student contributions, and assigning significant roles in group projects" (Rovai, 2007, p. 86).
Angelo and Cross (1993) provide a good list of topics for instructors to include or adapt in their courses that have the added benefit of providing feedback to the instructor regarding learning. These topics include:
• One-sentence summaries — students select and articulate only the defining features of an idea.
• Most important point—students describe the most important point of a reading assignment and why it is important to them.
• Muddiest point — students identify the least understood point in a reading assignment.
• Test questions and model answers—students write plausible test questions and model answers for specified topics.
• Self-confidence surveys — students assess their self-confidence regarding specific skills.
• Benefits analysis —students describe how the skills learned in the course relate to their goals and interests in life" (Rovai, 2007, p. 87).
