The Biggest Misnomer in Ed Tech: “Discussion” Boards
For all the exciting, new, cutting edge educational technologies being developed and deployed, discussion boards and forums seem to elude updates and redesigns. Furthermore, the ability of discussion boards to actually stimulate discussion is hit or miss, depending on who you ask — some students love discussion boards while others hate them. Designers and educators need to critically evaluate discussion boards as they are currently designed to improve their effectiveness or, better yet, to reimagine their use in education. Just because “discussion” is in the name of discussion boards does not mean that conversations are guaranteed.
What is it about “discussion” boards that makes discussions feel stifled and forced? Roma Abhyankar, a graduate student in Communication, Culture, and Technology at Georgetown University, interviewed and hosted a focus group for graduate students about the use of discussion boards in their courses for an on-going class project. She shared some of the themes that arose through these conversations: graduate students found the grading schemes and asynchronous nature of discussion boards obstacles to creating an online dialogue.
While the intention may be to help stimulate discussions, a grading scheme around the number of posts and comments per week might have the opposite effect. The interviewed graduate students explained that mandatory, graded posts to discussion boards comes off as busy work and produces a tendency to “write and forget”. When discussion posts are not incorporated into lectures or in-person class discussions, students tend to view discussions boards as tedious assignments that don’t contribute to the class overall. This separation of discussion boards from class time, and the feeling that instructors don’t read or care about student posts, leads students to write on discussion boards then forget about what they wrote — that’s not very conducive to learning. If instructors are not incorporating posts in other course activities or engaging in discussion boards themselves, why should students?
In addition, these students would only respond to other posts if commenting was graded as well. If commenting was mandatory, these students noted that they would rarely go back to their original post and read their peer’s comments. When prompted about posting with various file types, such as images, links, or videos, one student responded that they have included media in the past and did not find these posts to better encourage conversation. The number of times students are posting and commenting on a discussion board can be viewed as engagement, but is this engagement meaningful? If the goal of using a discussion board is to have students participate in a discussion, does a grading scheme truly achieve that goal?
The paradox here is that everyone knows online discussions aren’t an impossible dream — hello, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google Hangouts… so why is conversation so difficult to start and maintain on educational discussion boards? Various aspects inherent to using discussion boards may inadvertently limit student engagement, particularly asynchronous participation. Students concluded that they would rather share their reflections in a synchronous or in-person setting, where dialogue happens more naturally. Synchronous meetings may not be an option for some online learning experiences, such as in massive open online courses. Discussion boards provided in popular learning management systems typically follow a post-and-reply model, where replies are additional posts in a thread. The rising use of WordPress in education changes this format to more of a blog style, where replies to a post appear as comments on the same page. WordPress allows for tagging as well, so students can navigate discussion posts based on content, rather than in chronological order of posting seen in traditional discussion forums. While WordPress allows for posts to be better integrated with other posts, there is still an asynchronous barrier that seems to elude Facebook, Twitter, and Google Hangouts. Communicating to students why a discussion board used in a course may be vital to produce meaningful student engagement despite some of the hindering aspects of traditional discussion boards. So, if fostering peer-to-peer and peer-to-instructor communication is the goal of using a discussion board, shouldn’t discussion boards incorporate some aspects of successful online communication tools?
Some tools set out to do just that. Backchannel Chat is an educational version of Twitter, wherein instructors moderate student posts in real-time, during class. This tool is an informal and more instant discussion board. Flipgrid is a video-based discussion tool. Instructors again have full moderation controls. Instructors can post prompts that students respond to by recording short videos on their smartphones. This more visual experience may simulate more of a classroom environment, better connecting and engaging students with their peer’s posts. Campuswire is completely reimagining discussion boards in higher education as we know it. I briefly spoke to Brian Smith from Campuswire about their platform. He explained that Campuswire seeks to solve some of the problems with discussion boards, particularly those used in learning management systems. Campuswire mirrors other commonly used communication tools, such as Slack. Campuswire also provides students and instructors with a variety of options for how best to communicate, including separate rooms, direct messaging, anonymous messaging, and redesigned question-and-answer format discussion boards. These spaces establish an informal, comfortable virtual discussion environment, made even easier by incorporated @Mentions functionality. And if all that wasn’t enough, Campuswire is data compliant, ensuring high data security and data privacy of the students and instructors involved.
It’s important to keep in mind that technology is not the solution, but a tool. What is the purpose of using a discussion board and what tool (technology) best meets that need? Discussion boards can host numerous activities besides just “discussion”. Question and answer prompts may be better suited through a tool like PollEverywhere. Discussion boards can be a place for reflection on one’s learning. Collaborative discussion prompts can use Google Suite apps to transform text responses into creative projects. There is no need to limit discussion boards to discussion only, especially if that discussion isn’t meaningful for students.
So, if discussions aren’t happening on discussion boards, then why keep calling them “discussion” boards? Discussion boards are often seen as separated from the overall learning experience of a course, leading to low student participation and engagement. Discussion boards not only need a new name, but they also need better course integration and more innovative uses. Designers and instructors should think critically and creatively about why a discussion is being used (and what using a discussion board will achieve in the course) to better select a tool to meet those goals, to better incorporate the discussion board into the course, and to better stimulate meaningful student engagement.
