3 Reasons All Classes Should Have Online Discussion Boards
Class discussion is moving at a rapid pace.
Your mind is tracking your classmates’ thoughts while forming several talking points of your own. The outcome of this process is a coherent thought to share. So you quickly rehearse and repeat what you’re going to say in your head. The pressure to share this thought builds up, like a sneeze, relievable only by raising your hand. Once called, you articulate what you rehearsed so fluidly you give yourself a mental pat on the back.
A few moments later, however, you realize you forgot to mention one of your main points. Bummer.
This relatable scenario leads us to the first of three reasons all classes should have online discussion boards.
1. Students can share their thoughts more intentionally and comprehensively.
Like the example above, we’ve all experienced the relatable but frustrating scenario when you simply forget that ONE point that would have wrapped your entire statement in a nice bow.
The reason this is so relatable is partly because it’s incredibly difficult to synthesize your thoughts in real time. This is especially the case when discussing abstract topics.
To mitigate the risk of students forgetting a major point or articulating themselves in a convoluted manner because it’s challenging to maintain multiple points in one’s head at once, all courses should have discussion boards.
Students can then have the time and space to think deeply on a topic, write and revise their thoughts, and even reference source material before sharing their perspective with the class.
In my experience, the benefit of time to ruminate on a topic, opposed to exclusively reacting to discussion during class time, generated significant and thoughtful contributions from classmates I otherwise would have never heard from. Particularly students that are shy. Which segues to reason #2 all classes should have discussion boards.
2. For shy students, online discussion boards give them a place to be heard.
For many students, speaking in class is just not their jam. However, it isn’t fair to assume these students are not engaged with the material or unable to keep up with the pace of discussion.
Rather, some students are simply shy. The idea of speaking in front of their peers is too overwhelming to confront. So instead, they resign to listening and keeping their thoughts to themselves.
This is unfortunate for the individual because their position is not being heard but is also detrimental to the class that's deprived from that person’s viewpoint.
Discussion boards allow shy students to bypass the anxiety-inducing act of publicly speaking in front of their classmates.
Ideally, however, discussion boards would help shy students “warm up” to their classmates, and eventually develop the courage to speak in class after positive virtual interactions.
After all, public speaking is a valuable skill that most people ought to develop, preferably in a low-risk environment such as a classroom where the consequences are not real except for embarrassment if you have an anxious temperament.
However, even if the progress of speaking in class never materializes, the shy student sharing their thoughts on a discussion board is a great consolation prize compared to the alternative.
3. The class can continue any conversation that ended prematurely because class time ran out.
The intellectual energy in the room is palpable. Ideas are bouncing around the room with intensity, and the classroom is in a state of flow.
But! The class has run out of time.
The excitement in the room abruptly deflates as students begin arranging notebooks and laptops back into their backpack as they commence the journey to their next class across campus.
The constraint of time is a major buzzkill for an engaged class.
For classes that are twice or only once a week, it’s challenging to capture that flow-like state again during the next meeting. In most cases, you can’t just pick up where you left off.
This is another scenario when an online discussion board is clutch. If students are bursting with a cerebral spark on a topic, they don’t need to wait until the next time the class meets. They can share additional thoughts an hour later, that evening, the following day or literally whenever they’re inspired.
This reinforces the reality that an education transgresses the boundaries of a classroom. Intellectual thought does not begin and end exclusively when class is in session, but rather should be a part of how we move and interact in the world.
My favorite courses in college all had discussion boards. Educators — will you include them in your courses moving forward, if you’re not already?
