The linear nature of traditional discussion boards discourages parallel development of ideas and makes it challenging to decipher the visual relationship between ideas, resulting in fragmentary engagements. This session will showcase a cloud-based discussion platform that leverages social and educational elements to create authentic collaboration and meaningful learning experiences.
Collaborative learning has tremendous implications for online teaching and learning. Even though technology has significantly evolved and learning management systems provide opportunities for collaboration, one aspect that is still lacking is the ability to have fluid discussions and interactions in online and technology-driven environments. The natural limitations of learning management systems and traditional discussion boards restrict students to rigidly sequential approaches to learning.
The layout and design of traditional discussion boards inhibit conditions that promote coherent and fluid conversations. Online discussion boards often characterize collaboration as “message posting more so than actual dialogue” (Denne & Wieland, 2007, p. 281). In addition, the inability of instructors to manage and truly facilitate discourse, can result in conversations merely posted to socialize (Ochoa et al., 2012) rather than challenging students to think critically, and analyze and integrate concepts.
The linear and structured nature of discussion boards discourages parallel development of ideas and makes it challenging to decipher the visual relationship and interconnections between posts, resulting in fragmentary engagements. Traditional discussion boards often force learners to click through page after page and down the hierarchy of the threaded discussions. This can be daunting not only for learners but also for faculty who administer, monitor, and facilitate discussions in online courses. Discussion boards often require significant effort on the part of the instructor to monitor and nurture the conversations. These challenges can lead to faculty assessing the content and outcomes of student participation in discussion forums based merely on frequency counts and other quantitative measures that often fail to, or only minimally capture, the quality and richness of student participation.
To foster meaningful collaborative learning, online environments should allow students opportunities for natural and organic engagement with their peers, the kinds of opportunities where they can “build shared meaning, explore topics in depth, and develop insight into the nature of the communication and learning process, which supports the emergence of new creative and conceptual thinking” (Champion & Gunnlaugson, 2017). This calls for “reconceiving online discussions more as symphonies with each participant serving a distinctive instrumental role to encourage departure from the solo approach of each student making posts with minimal engagement of cohorts” (Schwartzman & Morrissey, 2010, p. 59).
This session will introduce participants to a cloud-based discussion platform that leverages social and educational elements to create authentic collaboration and meaningful learning experiences. The visual representation of ideas within the platform enables instructors and students to engage in interactive exploration of emerging themes and patterns throughout the discussion. By leveraging visualization, the platform allows content to be grouped and examined in meaningful ways, leading to more spontaneous and organic discourse. Conversations can take the form of open discussions, where users present their ideas on a topic and interact with the ideas of others, to more complex forms of interaction such as debates, mind mapping, group discussions, and peer reviews.
Further, by integrating social elements to online discussions, the platform provides instructors opportunities to enhance learner identities and create a social-learning community online. These social learning and communication tools empower students and instructors to present themselves socially and academically in the online environment, personalizing their experiences so they can develop an identity as part of a community.
The built-in content creation tools allow faculty and students to easily create, edit, and share content within discussions, eliminating the need for utilizing third-party tools. The platform also allows users to store, manipulate, repurpose, and share previously created content across topics, courses, and with other users. In this way, both faculty and students can create new and original knowledge rather than simply distributing and consuming information.
Automated grading and reporting make information on student participation and interaction readily available to faculty and students, and make it easy to track progress and provide timely feedback. In addition, the platform offers easy-to-use collaboration tools for one-on-one, small group, and large group discussions, making synchronous and asynchronous communication, collaboration, and presentation easily accessible.
Online discussions play a critical role in connecting students with the content and one another. However, the linear and threaded nature of traditional models of online discussions often result in shallow, disconnected exchanges that fail to meaningfully engage students. This new solution combines a visual approach to discussions with social and educational elements to help faculty and students easily create and share content and reimagine the possibilities of online discussions.
References
Champion, K., & Gunnlaugson, O. (2017). Fostering generative conversation in higher education course discussion boards. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 1-9.
Dennen, V. P., & Wieland, K. (2007). From interaction to intersubjectivity: Facilitating online group discourse processes. Distance Education, 28(3), 281-297.
Ochoa, S. F., Pino, J. A., Baloian, N., Antunes, P., & Herskovic, V. (2012, October). Some observations from the analysis of an online discussion board. In Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC), 2012 IEEE International Conference on(pp. 1280-1285). IEEE.
Schwartzman, R., & Morrissey, M. (2010). Collaborative Student Groups and Critical Thinking in an Online Basic Communication Course. In Cases on Online Discussion and Interaction: Experiences and Outcomes (pp. 39-65). IGI Global.