BOOK: AOD Foundations

Many educators simply ask a question and let learners respond. That can work!

However, consider that there are other ways to structure the discussion, the tasks and roles that is asked of learners, and the way they interact with one another. This can serve specific learning objectives, or it can simply shake things up and make one discussion (every once in a while in our course) a little different.

What follows are some ideas and inspirations. In the next section of this chapter, you will be directed to even more resources to inspire your discussion structure - don't miss out on these resources, you will want to add them to your toolkit!

1. Increasingly challenging questions: Some instructors like to scaffold the discussions in a way that also builds knowledge from the general to the specific or from lower to higher orders of learning.
   • How this works:
     • The instructor may start learners on a simple discussion question that only requires lower levels of thinking, such as knowledge (remembering) and comprehension (understanding) (Bloom’s Taxonomy).
     • This starts the discussion on a lower level of learning so that learners begin to build their knowledge and thoughts on the topic.
     • The instructor posts and emails a summary of that discussion.
     • Then a second discussion question, due a few days later, may demand that learners integrate and apply the knowledge from the first discussion in a more complex way.
     • The instructor posts and emails a summary of that discussion.
     • Then a third discussion question may advance this learning strategy further, or require them to summarize, integrate, and analyze what they have learned even further.
       
       
2. Role-play: The instructor assigns roles or characters to learners and then gives them scenarios to act out in the AOD. Note that these are great alternative assessment methods and help to really learn how much learners know about a given topic. An important tactic to keep in mind is to survey learners prior to assigning roles and to purposely put each learner into a role that is new or different than the learner's own personal views or values. For example, make a learner with conservative political views play the role of a person with liberal political views, or young person play the role of an elderly resident. This way the participants are forced to learn about new views and opposite viewpoints than they already had, thus expanding their overall learning on the topic much more than if they only debated, defended, or played a role already in-line with their current worldviews.
   • Examples for Ideas:
     • Middle East Studies Course: The instructor assigns students to be different country leaders in the Middle East, learners study the politics of their assigned country, and then have an online ’United Nations Peace Conference’ in the discussion forums concerning conflicts over land and water rights.
     • Educational Psychology Course: The instructor assigns Learners  to be different famous educational psychologists from different eras and/or disciplines. Students study up on the views and research of their psychologist, and then in the forums ’acts out’ that person’s views on specific questions or debates.
     • Environmental Science Course: The instructor creates a role-play about use of pesticides in a small community. Learners are given different roles, such as the concerned house mom, the business owner that sells the chemicals, or the corporation manager that exports the chemicals. They then interact through questions and concerns about the chemicals and learn about different stakeholder interests.
       
       
3. Crowd-Sourced Research: Some instructors use the discussion forums as a crowd-sourced research repository. Students generate resources and information, the instructor can moderate it and comment on it, and then learners can use that information to formulate essays, work, or assignments.This is particularly effective in professional programs where learners are assembling their professional toolkit and their can collaborate to find resources that will be helpful in their future career.
   
   • How this works:
     • The instructor creates a discussion forum on a given topic, and assigns students to list one fact and one web resource on the topic.
     • A few days later, learners participate in a second forum in which they summarize the information generated in the first one.
     • The students might then be required to complete a project, paper, or essay on the topic using at least three of the things they learned about during the data-driven discussions.
     • This scaffolds their learning and also ensures they use more reputable/approved sources of knowl- edge because the instructor had a chance to review them in advance.
       
       
4. Picture This Example: One use of AODs that often generates interests and enthusiasm from the class asks students to go and take a picture of a concept seen in class, out there, in the real world. This asks students to understand that concept and to recognize it in practice in the real world. There is an element of creativity and every student will post something different. Learners are interested to view their peers' responses and this helps solidify these concepts through the many examples. For example, in a marketing course, the instructor may direct students to visit shopping malls and street store fronts and take a picture of an advertisement in a shop window that illustrates a particular marketing concept seen in class. The discussion can then explore whether the shop's application of that marketing concept is well done and how it could be improved for better results. In a chemistry course, students could be directed to go take a picture of oxidation occurring in the environment. In a follow up to the original posts, other students have to select an image (that is not their own) and explain how this is an example of oxidation and the chemical reactions that take place.
   
   
5. Find the Error. An intellectually engaging discussion approach asks students to come up with a description of a concept or a problem solution that is flawed in some way. This asks them to understand that concept really well and then to "break it" in a conscious way. This constitutes the first post. Next, other learners in the class try to identify what is flawed about the post of their peers. They play detective and find the mistakes. In their posts, they identify what they think is wrong and how it could be rectified to be correct. Finally, the original student responds to the posts and provides the key; their solution to their flawed response.
   
   
6. Analogies. One way to stimulate the creativity of your learners while making sure that they understand a concept and giving other learners an opportunity to learn from examples is to ask students to explain a concept by giving an analogy. You may task learners to come up with an analogy without any restrictions on their analogy (e.g., come up with an analogy to explain the electron transport chain in the mitochondria). Alternatively, you may ask learners to think of the analogy in a particular way (e.g., Please complete the following sentence and explain why you chose your submission: marketing is to social media as _______ is to your exercise routine.)
   
   
7. Leadership Development.: An excellent tactic is to make students a leader in the discussions, which also attends to encouraging students to be in charge of their own learning. This tactic motivates them to learn at least one topic fully, and by teaching others they show their grasp of the subject as well as learn leadership skills.
   • How this works
     • The instructor creates a schedule of important key course topics. This could, for example, take the form of one topic per week of the course.
       
     • Learners sign up during the first week to lead one weekly online.
     • They are given clear, concise, and precise guidelines on how to prepare for their leadership week. These directions should include a grading rubric outlining how their work and participation will be assessed.
     • A week prior to their leadership week, the instructor connects with the learners who are about to lead the discussion to discuss their plan. The learner is in charge of designing the weekly discussion question, but the instructor should review it prior to the student posting it.
     • On the prescribed week, the student posts the initial discussion question and is then the leader for that topic, helping to guide and advance the discussion. They are expected to show that they are a leader/expert in that particular topic.
       
     • The instructor would moderate and interact as well, but more in the backseat, leaving the student to complete their leadership experience.
       
     • This is an alternative assessment measurement method that can be easily and conveniently assigned.

This was just a snippet of the range of possible discussion structures. Hungry for more ideas and inspirations? Consider the following resources.

21 Ways to Structure an Online Discussion. This series of five articles describe 21 different ways to structure an AOD. Each article focuses on structures that align with a particular learning outcome. The description of each structure contains ideas for variations and examples.

Prud'homme-Généreux, A. (2021). 21 Ways to Structure an Online Discussion. Faculty Focus.

• Part 1 (Apply Learning)
• Part 2 (Explore Concepts Through Divergent Thinking)
  
• Part 3 (Explore Concepts Through Convergent Thinking)
• Part 4 (Foster Metacognition)
• Part 5 (Ideas for Using Multimedia)

Liberating Structure is a group of 33 different strategies for leading group conversations. They are designed to be equitable and to ensure that every member of the group is given an equal voice. Many of the techniques will seem familiar, like 1-2-4-All (educators know this tactic as "Think-Pair-Share"). This website provides a description of each activity, including ideas for variations and examples. These ways of organizing groups to facilitate the discussion could easily be adapted to an AOD.

McCandless, K., & Lipmanowicz, H. (n.a.). Liberating Structures.

Project Zero's Thinking Routine Toolbox is a collection of more than 80 set of questions designed to make student thinking visible. Assembled by Harvard University's Project Zero, the question sets are organized according to their outcomes, such as synthesizing & organizing ideas, or digging deeper into an idea. To view the resource, select an method and then on its webpage, click on Resource Link to read a description.

Project Zero. (n.a.). Thinking Routine Toolbox. Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Kevin Lee at the University of South Florida has been accumulating ideas for activities into this PDF document. It currently contains 289 ways to facilitate group discussions. more than a few could be used to structure an AOD.

Lee, K. (2020). Interactive Techniques. University of South Florida. 

Design Thinking is a method used by designers to ensure that the end product meets the users' needs and that all options are considered and tested. Out of this approach comes several activities for leading groups conversations that could easily be adapted to an AOD. For example, the Mash-Up activity asks participants to combine two seemingly unrelated ideas to create an innovative solution - it's a form of brainstorming. By combining an office element with a type of childhood play, a mash-up might suggest that to loosen up power dynamics in an office, there will be periodic snowball/paper ball fights where everyone writes suggestions for improving the office environment. Such a technique could be used to stimulate students to create new solutions.

Idea.org. (n.a.). The Design Kit. 

         (n.a.).Design Thinking Toolkit. Principle Based Management, Koch U. [Note: These are much more business-focused, but there might still be some ideas that can apply to education more broadly.]

Icebreaker. If you are using a discussion board as an icebreaker at the beginning of a course, there are many sources of icebreaker ideas.

Reflection

Review some of the discussion structures in this chapter. Which of the techniques appeals to your teaching philosophy and why? Are some approaches best suited to some learning processes over others, such as inquiry-based learning or project-based learning? Which suit which? Why?

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