Tools like blogs, wikis, VoiceThread, and social media can be used in online and hybrid courses to foster greater interactivity and engagement beyond discussion boards.
Interaction Beyond the Discussion Board
By Rebecca Farivar and Megan Mulholland
Curriculum Support Specialists at California State University, East Bay
Abstract
Tools like blogs, wikis, VoiceThread, and social media can be used in online and hybrid courses to foster greater interactivity and engagement beyond discussion boards.
Presentation Description and Goals
Many instructors are comfortable using the discussion board to foster interaction in online and hybrid courses, but nowadays there are other tools and technologies available that can be used to increase interaction and engagement as well as a greater sense of connection among students. In this session, weÕll look at examples of how tools like blogs, wikis, VoiceThread, and social media have been used to increase student engagement and then brainstorm with participants how to transform their current discussion board assignments into a different collaborative format or design a new activity or assignment.
To start off this session, we will bring examples from courses hosted on Blackboard at
California State University, East Bay (with permission of the instructors) where these technologies are currently being used in place of or to supplement a regular discussion board. Examples include:
* Scaffolding an ongoing blog assignment to a major research project in order to foster support and sharing among students and help students reach the project milestones on time
* Using VoiceThread to replicate the in-class presentation experience and increasing a sense of community for a foreign language course
* Using social media tools like Twitter and Facebook for asynchronous and synchronous discussion in a masters-level education course to show future teachers how they could increase interactivity in their own courses
* Building a knowledge base and encouraging group interaction by using wikis within small group activities
During the session, weÕll divide into groups based on the tool attendees are most interested in or would like to incorporate into their course. Ideally, weÕd like to encourage attendees to look at a current discussion board activity that could be redesigned and replaced using these additional collaboration tools. Attendees are also welcome to design a new activity or assignment that would be beneficial for their course using the tools discussed.
The takeaway of this session is for attendees to learn about other interactive discussion tools and design an activity or assignment that purposefully uses the appropriate tools for engagement in their course.
By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:
* Describe interactive tools (e.g. blogs, wikis, VoiceThread, and social media) for online and hybrid courses beyond the discussion board
* Identify appropriate interactive tools for selected assignments and activities
* Design activities that effectively use interactive tools in place of the discussion board