by Thanh Tran/ March 9, 2016

Our faculty have a few default tools in Blackboard to enhance interaction, the most popular is the Discussion Board. Many instructors who transition to online teaching are concerned that their students may not get the same level of interaction with a discussion board as they would in a face-to-face course. Having taught in a classroom for years, some are overwhelmed with the idea of moderating such a radically different environment. How does one manage this space and all these responses in a way that engages students and adds real value to the course?

Let’s look at some ways for you to efficiently manage a quality board.

Plan to monitor, not moderate.

Discussion boards become overwhelming when you try to do too much during and after the actual discussion. Invest your time in the beginning to design a consistent, predictable system that helps students be independent during the process. Some ways to set this up for students is to provide clear written instructions, a rubric that describes the participation expectations, a mock forum, and examples of quality posts.

Let students lead.

One way instructors do this is by assigning discussion leaders in small groups and changing them for each new discussion. Instead of you going through all the threads and posts every day, allocate the facilitator’s role to a few students by letting them highlight and respond to their group peers.

Use Blackboard Groups.

When discussion forums and threads have too many participants, it’s hard for students to read all the threads and replies. They will probably overlook your input if you don’t respond to everyone.

Creating small groups brings focus to the exchanges and makes the discussion environment easier to navigate for everyone. This helps you or the assigned discussion leaders focus when they can read through 5-10 posts versus 50-100 posts. As you facilitate, you might find similar points occurring across many groups, so you can recycle and reuse your comments from one group to the next. In these ways you can participate less frequently but your presence will be more apparent.

Learn How to Create Blackboard Groups

4. Focus on the few and summarize.

When the boards are open, you can still have quality discussions without responding to every student. Participate strategically by drawing attention to posts that have the potential to generate more discussions. Look for recurring themes that you can address to the whole group instead of responding frequently to individuals.

Consider closing the discussion with a mass announcement to unify and bring closure to the discussion while reiterating important themes in the unit. In a single message, you can spotlight specific students and interesting selections that came up during the discussion.

Grade for participation.

If you approach discussion boards as social and interactive components of the course, try not to over-evaluate students’ ideas and writing.

One way is to develop a participation rubric that can help you easily assign a grade by listing observable criteria such as:

Connection to the topic or to others.
Timing and frequency of participation.
Post length.
General clarity and mechanics.

See a different perspective on discussion boards as writing – Discussion Board 101: Conceptual Moves

When your course is too big…

One last reason why instructors get overwhelmed with the idea of discussion boards is because their course enrollment is large. Ideally you should have TAs, but that isn’t always the case. Don’t force discussion boards to fit your course. Sometimes, you might find that this isn’t the right tool for what you need to do.

Get help.

Teachers struggle with discussion boards because they are unsure of how to effectively and efficiently manage them.

Coupled with the tips above, avoid the below:

Using the boards without designing a discussion system.
Having a system that relies on your initiation and feedback to generate replies.
Being unaware of Blackboard options for board management.
Focusing on individual responders.
Over-grading or not having a grading rubric.

Don’t get overwhelmed with planning an online discussion system on your own. Contact your college’s instructional designer for advice on how to get started and get input on more ways to improve the social and interactive components of your course.