1. Enhancing Your Courses With Manila Discussions Presented by Heidi King

2. Why Use Discussions?

3. Discussion Components Also known as bulletin boards An asynchronous online tool Typically threaded; Manila threads differently

4. Educational Goals What are your goals and which of those can be met using online discussions? Create more meaningful interactions Enable all students to participate (shy, reflective thinkers, working students, etc.) Encourage growth of a learning community Extend classroom boundaries What are your goals for your class(es)?

5. Professional Goals Move to hybrid teaching? Move to online teaching?

6. Benefits Collaboration and group work. A good way to manage and collect group work. Online resources can be shared quickly and easily. Cancelled classes can still have meaningful online discussions. Some students are more comfortable writing than speaking. Others?

7. Which Tool is Best? Email vs. Online Discussions Better tool depends on the nature of your online discussions Think of ways you can effectively use the tools together.

8. Creating Discussions in Manila

9. Communication Strategies

10. Basic Tips Make use the discussions yourself (and email, too) Use the discussion list regularly Assign specific tasks for students Make students aware of your posting policies

11. Your Online Discussion Policies What will the discussions be used for? Who will instigate discussions? Will they be teacher or student driven? How often to you expect students to post? How often will you read and respond? How will you organize discussions?

12. Netiquette Be aware of the online culture of your students. Will you allow emoticons and acronyms?

13. Planning and Preparation Encourage students to copy and paste from their word processor to the discussions. Offer formatting suggestions, such as hyphens and asterisks.

14. Other Issues Symbols and graphics “Flame” wars

15. Teaching Strategies

16. Setting the Tone The tone you take will likely be the one your students assume. Model effective postings and replies for students - post samples. Let students know the expectations for response time.

17. Modeling and Coaching “Lurk” and monitor your discussions If your discussions are student-driven, you can coach them behind the seens. Email students you don’t see participating. Email students that may not be responding/posting appropriately

18. What About Group Work? Online discussions are a fantastic forum for group work. Different groups have different discussions. Use email to communicate and form a group response to discussion questions.

19. Designing Effective Groups Survey the class to find out their skill level. Aim for 3-5 students Place a technology savvy person in each group Decide what to do about “flakes” Allow groups to set own policies

20. Grading and Assessment Do you want to grade on quality or quantity or both? Do you want to grade at all? In Manila, consider: A simple grading approach OR Group posts OR Letting students decide which posts you grade.

21. Managing Assignments Start small Think of one discussion activity that would work well in one of your classes. Build on what you know Once you have one or two online discussions running smoothly, add more to one class. Explore multiple class discussions Consider extensive online group work

22. Writing Effective Assignments Be very clear about your objectives and expectations State a clear due date Make sure students have access Refer students to examples Use headers and spacing in the body of your assignment Highlight key points.

23. Create an Assignment