Student discussions are an important part of learning. Discussions allow students to be active participants in constructing knowledge and meaning of the material. In-person discussions can be energizing, with rapid exchanges where students can express both their knowledge of and feelings about a subject. These discussions can be memorable experiences that not only help students learn but also change how they relate to the course material. For instructors, it can be exciting to see students engage in meaningful discussions. However, instructors sometimes overestimate students' engagement in discussions, and whole-class discussions are often dominated by only a handful of students. In-person class discussions favor extroverts and frequently lack the voices of introverts, language learners, and others who require flexibility to reflect and form responses.

In contrast to in-person discussions, asynchronous online discussions allow for more equitable opportunities to participate. The flexibility inherent in online discussions also allows participants to be more reflective in their comments. However, most of these discussions occur using text. Text is helpful for critical thinking but can lack the communication cues that allow participants to connect with the material and other students. As a result, students can feel uninterested and isolated.

Discussions Using Asynchronous Video

In many ways asynchronous video communication can combine the best of in-person and text discussions. Similar to text-based communication, video messages are recorded and allow for high levels of flexibility and participation. Once video messages are shared, students can watch and/or respond to them immediately or when it is convenient. At the same time, they contain the fidelity and communication cues that help make in-person communication powerful.

Instructors should be aware, though, of video messaging's disadvantages. First, recording and posting messages can be uncomfortable for students initially. That said, in our research, students reported that the discomfort they felt tended to decrease significantly after just a few posts.^Footnote1 Second, video messaging can be less convenient than text because you need to find a relatively quiet place to record videos and because skimming video is more difficult than skimming text. However, participants in our research tended to find that the benefits outweighed the potential drawbacks in most cases.

Using Asynchronous Video When It's the Best Option

Not all online interactions should take place using asynchronous video. The questions below will help you to determine when to use video and when to use text.

If you answer "yes" to any of these questions, then the use of asynchronous video would be beneficial:

1. In part, are you assessing students' ability to speak or present on the topic?
2. Are you hoping that this discussion will help establish a sense of community?
3. Is it important for you to know how students feel about the topic?
4. Do some students in your course have difficulty communicating in text?

If you answer "yes" to any of these questions, then the use of asynchronous text would be beneficial:

1. In part, are you assessing students' ability to write on the topic?
2. Are you primarily assessing students' critical thinking on the topic?
3. Is a written record necessary for future review?
4. Do some students in your course have difficulty communicating using video or viewing/hearing video?

It's likely that you responded "yes" to questions in both lists. When that's the case, you may want to create activities that combine text with video comments or provide students the choice of which modality they use to comment.

Types of Activities

In most cases, using a variety of discussion activities throughout a course is beneficial for students and instructors. Table 1 shows a partial list of asynchronous discussion activities.

Table 1. Asynchronous discussion activities

Focus on the Prompt

If a discussion you design for an in-person class flops, you can quickly adjust the activity on the fly. Although the same can be true for an online activity, making those changes mid-stream can be more difficult than in an in-person setting. As a result, instructors need to think more carefully about online discussion prompts. Although one can never be sure if a new discussion prompt will result in the desired learning outcomes, the guidelines below can help increase the likelihood of success. Many of these guidelines and the table 2 below are drawn from "Generating and Facilitating Engaging and Effective Online Discussions" (it's worth a read if you have time).

• Prompts should be open-ended and allow for multiple correct responses. Good discussion-board prompts also measure higher-order thinking skills. In many ways it's easier to write good discussion prompts that require divergent and evaluative thinking than it is to write good prompts that only require convergent thinking because you don't want the students to arrive at the same conclusion too quickly. See table 2 for examples.
• Have students discuss in small groups (four to eight students) rather than whole-class discussions.
• Set clear expectations on the length and number of posts that are required.
• Provide incentives for participation. Points should typically be given for participation. However, how those points are awarded can vary. At times you will want to use a rubric, which will allow you to assess the quality of comments. However, simply awarding points for participating is sufficient in some cases.

Table 2. Writing Good Discussion Questions (University of Oregon Teaching Effectiveness Program, licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA)

Facilitating the Discussions

Something of a Goldilocks principle is at play in how much the instructor should participate in an online discussion. An instructor who participates too much can actually shut down the discussion by making the activity instructor-centered and not student-centered. However, students also require the instructor's content and pedagogical expertise. Instructor comments can motivate students to increase the quantity and quality of their comments. As a result, if the instructor participates too little, then students may not gain much from the discussion.

Cranney et al. conducted an interesting study examining this phenomenon by correlating student grades on discussion-based activities with the instructor's participation in those discussions.^Footnote2 Specifically, two figures from their study help tell the story. Figure 1 shows a strong correlation between the amount of time that instructors spent in the online course discussion and students' grades on the discussion. However, as shown in figure 2, only a weak correlation emerged between the number of instructor posts to the discussion and student grades on the discussion activity. This indicates that it's important that instructors spend time monitoring student discussions, but they should focus more on the quality of their posts rather than on posting a lot of comments.

When instructors make comments they are actually fulfilling three important roles: policing, judging, and mentoring. This short video below explains each of these roles.

If you have just a few minutes, Cheryl Hayek has one of the best and most memorable answers to the question, "How many posts should the instructor make?"

Conclusion

Discussions are critical in helping students construct understanding. Text-based discussions can help students reflect and think critically but can lack the human touch and emotion that add meaning and interest to what's being discussed. By engaging in discussions using video recordings, students can communicate more personably while still maintaining time to reflect between exchanges. However, asynchronous video discussions still require a quality prompt and instructor facilitation.

Acknowledgment

This chapter was written with the support of EdConnect and previously published at https://edtechbooks.org/-BEc

Notes

1. Jered Borup, Richard E. West, and Charles R. Graham, "Improving Online Social Presence through Asynchronous Video," The Internet and Higher Education 15, no. 3 (2012). 
2. Michelle Cranney, Lisa Wallace, Jeffrey L. Alexander, and Laura Alfano, "Instructor's Discussion Forum Effort: Is It Worth It?" MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching 7, no. 3 (September 2011).