SNAPP is certainly a convenient and effective diagnostic tool for improving discussion group performance.
I note that groups of about 10 seem to have more discussion nodes and reciprocity than smaller groups.
Does anyone have a metric dealing with the optimum number of participants in an asynchronous discussion forum?
This online Moodle module
http://www.acs.org.au/cpeprogram/index.cfm?action=show&conID=blei
at subheading: TEACHING STRATEGIES says
"Students are grouped into cohorts of about 20"
Maybe you need to think about what you mean by the scenario that you want to know the optimum for.
This LAK11 moodle with different time zones and countries,
people posting their intro a week or two after the start,
when others are posting to week 3, is that your scenario
or is everyone supposed to be in the same discussion thread at the same time?
A very small group size (like 3) will make participants feel guilty unless every other participant is included.
Chris
http://www.acs.org.au/cpeprogram/index.cfm?action=show&conID=blei
at subheading: TEACHING STRATEGIES says
"Students are grouped into cohorts of about 20"
Maybe you need to think about what you mean by the scenario that you want to know the optimum for.
This LAK11 moodle with different time zones and countries,
people posting their intro a week or two after the start,
when others are posting to week 3, is that your scenario
or is everyone supposed to be in the same discussion thread at the same time?
A very small group size (like 3) will make participants feel guilty unless every other participant is included.
Chris
Good point! I was assuming a paced cohort that would be assigned a discussion forum to complete within a fixed period, usually one week.
The scenario doesn't apply to online learning environments where the asynchronous discussions are totally open ended, for example, LAK11.
It would be difficult to apply the same analytics to these two quite different scenarios, although they can both be described as online forums.
The scenario doesn't apply to online learning environments where the asynchronous discussions are totally open ended, for example, LAK11.
It would be difficult to apply the same analytics to these two quite different scenarios, although they can both be described as online forums.