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Asynchronous, text-based discussion can provide rich learning opportunities , offer greater flexibility to students,  and   and can be be simple to set up. 

Why asynchronous?  

Live, or 'synchronous' learning activities and assessments can disadvantage students when they are based in different locations and and time zones . For example, a quiz set for 2pm 2 pm London time will open in Australia at 1am1 am. 

Asynchronous discussion isn’t just a falla fall-back for when we can’t offer synchronous learning , and  has its own  distinct  and has its own distinct advantages, includingincluding:      

  • More time for students to gather their thoughts, collect evidence, plan their response responses and reflect on other contributions. This can greatly improve the quality of contribution and discuss ion discussion; 
  • More accessible to students who find it difficult to speak up , have specific have specific learning differences , such as dyslexia , or for whom English is not their first language;     
  • Forums are simple to set up and participate in at your own pace.     

To hear first-hand the benefits and experiences of using asynchronous discussion forums, watch the watch  the following  short video  (run time: 6m 41s, courtesy of UNSW, Australia).       

General principles 

Discussion forums should have a clear purpose  and  and build towards towards an outcome so  so that students are motivated to participate. To deliver a successful forum activity you should: 

  • Establish clear expectations in terms of frequency of moderation by tutors, required post length, and peer feedback etiquette;
  • Provide a  prompt  or trigger to  provoke  conversationa prompt or trigger to provoke conversation; 
  • Moderat e Moderate  and scaffold discussion to keep things on things on track, encourag e  participation, draw  out  salient  pointse participation, draw out salient points, ask   follow-up questions and clarify  misconceptions  misconceptions; 
  • Provide a summary to allow students to draw conclusions and  act  and act as a reference point for later study. 

Avoid grading discussion posts  as   as this   may deter students from posting   developing ideas or  or cause them to overly plan and perfect their posts.   Instead , consider  consider having the  discussion discussion feed into future assessment . For an example of this  see  the  Critical  R eview  see the Critical R eview section  below. 

Moodle recommendations 

  • Use  Advanced Forums ; they are similar to regular Moodle forums but allow you to search for author authors or keywords, and there is a quick summary report so you can gauge participation. 
  • In large cohorts, assign students to  Moodle Groups  to make the discussion more manageable. 
  • When setting up a Forum:     
    • Add brief but clear instructions to the Description. This is the first thing students see when they open the Forum.  
    • Use Discussion locking lockingto make forums read-only after a set amount of time. This keeps the discussion focused.   
    • Consider setting the Group mode (under Common module settings) for your Forums to Visible Groups  so that students can see, but not post, to the discussion of other groups. This can allow students to see a range of responses and feedback. The alternative is to set Group mode  to  to Separate Groups  in in which students can't see each other's group discussion.  
    • Release your forum on a specific date by using  Restrict access . 
    • Integrate your forum with other Moodle activities ; to spark discussion, a dd a reading  reading using the the Reading List activity or  or a   Video . After the discussion, use the   Choice activity  to poll student's on on whether the forum debate debate changed their view.      

Example approaches 

Asynchronous discussion forums discussion forums can be used to teach  and  support teach and support a range of  assessment t asksof assessment tasks. Some examples are examples are given below. These examples can examples can be adapted for adapted for a wide variety of academic disciplines and disciplines and are not intended to be prescriptivebe prescriptive. 

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titleCritical Review

Aim and and d escription

Develop  student  critical Develop student critical analysis and communication skills. Students write Students write a critique of a text, either written or multimedia, and post and post it to the discussion forum. They must then comment then comment on each other’s critiques   using critiques using criteria or guidance set by the tutor. The  The activity could occur multiple occur multiple times in a term but term but should be manageable to the student.     

Suggested assessment  

Discussion forum feedback on feedback on clarity of argument, evidence, communication skills, and grammar feeds grammar feeds forward into a summative critical review.    Actions  r equired by  l earner    

Actions required by learner

Write a critical review of a reading, engage with other student's reviews. 

Actions  r equired by  t utor Actions required by tutor(s)  

  • Add  text  to Add text to be reviewed:
  • Create Forum: 
    • Forum type:  Standard  Standard forum for general use .   
    • Moderate forum:  e ncourage  encourage students to view other reviews and feedback.   
    • Create a Turnitin assignment  dropbox assignment dropbox  for student to submit final summative review. 
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titleCase Study

Aim  and  d escription and description

Have students apply their knowledge in a n authentic  scenarioan authentic scenario. Students are given a scenario and a series of case questions  that  they must respond  to  in questions that they must respond to in the discussion forum. Once they have provided their own answers, they must provide constructive feedback on other student postsstudent posts.     

Suggested assessment

Students are assessed on the quality and quantity of their posts, including providing a complete response to the case or scenario, using relevant evidence, clarity of expression, grammar, making the minimum number of substantial posts, and their ability to contribute rather than dominate the discussion. 

Actions Required by Learner

Respond to case scenario and questions in a substantive and timely manner. Make a constructive response to another student's post.     

Actions Required by Tutor(s)

  • Create  Advanced   ForumCreate Advanced Forum: 
    • Forum Type: select Q and A forum if you want students to answer first before they see other responses,  or    or Standard forum  for for general use if use  if students can answer any question on a first come first served basis.  
    • Set Discussion locking to to one or two weeks.  
  • Organise  ForumOrganise Forum: 
    • Create a topic discussion which which includes the spark or question stem, all the questions, and a summary of any instructions for students to follow. Pin it to the top of the forum.
    • Create a topic discussion for each question. This helps break down posts into a thread for each question.
    • Assign students to specific questions by appending their name to the title of the discussion post.
  • Moderate Forum:  u se  structured  use structured points to add to discussionto discussion, and address and address any misconceptions. 
  • P ost Post a summary statement at the end of each case providing feedback and summary notes for students to  refer back  toto refer back to.
  • Grade posts in Moodle or separately e.g. Excel rubric which is then uploaded to students. 
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titleCritical Debate

Tim Neumann has kindly provided an example on running a live online debate online debate with 2 groups on Moodle. The  The example provided below substitutes an asynchronous an asynchronous discussion forum  for the live  debate  and  includes forum for the live debate and includes a potential setup for when there are more than two debate groups.  

Aim and description

Have students practice students practice their critical thinking, persuasive  persuasive writing, group work and communication skills.    Students are d i vided  into  groups  “For” and “Against”  and are assigned  to  a  thesis statement  to   Students are divided into groups “For” and “Against” and are assigned to a thesis statement to debate in a discussion forum. 

Suggested assessment

Student  groups Student groups are assessed on their understanding of the  thesis  statement,  presentation   of the ir argument ,  and  group  work the thesis statement, presentation of their argument, and group work. Students are also assigned to  one   debate to one debate to read, and vote pre and post debate.     

Actions Required by Learner

Critically analyse  thesis statement  from analyse thesis statement from an assigned point of view;   develop arguments   and anticipate  counterarguments .  Organise  argument  structure  and  order  develop arguments and anticipate counterarguments. Organise argument structure and order of speaking. Take  Take turns in groups, p o st ing   to the forum  opening posting to the forum opening arguments, followed by speaker arguments, and finally closing arguments.       

Actions Required by Tutor(s)

  • Organise debate groups: 
    • Assign students to debate to debate groups, one for each thesis statement,  in which   students  are allocated to   “For”  in which students are allocated to “For” or “Against”.   A ssign  each   debate g roup  another  d ebate  to   
    • Assign each debate group another debate to view/follow as an audience. 
    • Post an announcement with group information, you might want to summarise group allocations in a table.     
  • Create Debate Groups in Moodle:      
    • Name Groups by Thesis Statement; 
    • Include  “ For ”  and  “ Against ”  students Include “For” and “Against” students in the one group.     
  • Create  Advanced Create Advanced Forum for Practice: 
    • Forum Type:    Standard forum for general use ; 
    • Group Mode: Separate  Groups Groups;  
  • Create  Advanced Create Advanced Forum for the debate:      
    • Description: Include list of groups and thesis statements, and a summary of debate format; 
    • Forum Type:   Standard forum for general use;  
    • Set Discussion locking to to one week;  
    • Group Mode: Visible Groups ;  
    • Set Restrict Access  to  Accesss to Date you want forum to be released.  
  • Prepare Debate Forum: 
    • Create one Topic Discussion for each debate contribution, e.g. Opening Statements, Speaker 1, Speaker 2, Speaker 3, and Closing Statements (select option to copy to all groups). 
  • Create  Poll s Create Polls (pre and post debate): 
    • For small number of groups: Create two Choice activities for activities for each debate.      
    • For larger cohorts  and and multiple groups: Create Create two  Opinio   Poll s Opinio Polls  which allow student to specify the debate they are voting on and their vote. A dd the  poll URLs  to Add the poll URLs to Moodle. 
    • Release  pre   poll Release pre poll. 
    • Release post poll after poll after the debate conclude s  concludes (either manually or with Restrict Access).     
  • Moderate  debate Moderate debate: 
    • Ann ou nce Announce the start of the debate(s) and encourage students to complete pre-poll. 
    • Check in  periodically  to make sure  debate in periodically to make sure debate(s)  are  progressing are progressing. 
    • Announce the end the end of the  debate the debate(s),  encourag e  students to  comple te  post  encourage students to complete post poll, and to  read  other group  debate s to read other group debates. 
    • Announce the debate winners. 
  • Grade  Group  debate  eGrade Group debate e.g. Excel rubric which is then uploaded to students andstudents and/or peer feedback using Opinio. 
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titleReflective Discussion

Aim and and d escription  

Have students share  and discuss  their share and discuss their experiences with one another to another to facilitate reflective thinking and thinking and peer learning. The experience could be a time on placement, a  a common experience or a general a general theme. 

Suggested assessment

Although discussion posts are not assessed, they can be used as evidence in a summative reflective blog. 

Actions Required by Learner

Write a reflective first-hand account of an of an experience. Post  Post a reply to at least one other post.     

Actions Required by Tutor(s)

  • Create  Advanced  ForumCreate Advanced Forum: 
    • Forum Type:  Standard forum for general use  
  • Request a  Reflect class blog  for students to make summative reflective blog posts.     
  • Moderate Forum:     
    • E ncourage Encourage participation: “What  “What do others think?” “Did ” “Did anyone have a similar experience?”  ” 
    • Challenge students to reflect: “You’ve  “You’ve mentioned X, why do you think this happened?”   “H ow  would ” “How would you approach things differently now? ”  ” 
  • Post a summary statement at the end of each case providing feedback and summarising summarising emergent themes.
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titleRole Play

Aim and  d escription  and description

Encourage empathetic and critical thinking by having students research students research and act out given roles. A  student's  responses   must demonstrate  their understanding of  the A student's responses must demonstrate their understanding of the role as applied to a scenario provided by the teacher. For example,  a  discussion  a discussion of sustainability where students are given the role of conservationists, scientists, politicians, NGOs, stakeholders ( see  Oliver see Oliver 2016). Alternatively, roles could be distinguished  using  a   theoretical model  or distinguished using a theoretical model or level of analysis, e.g.  “ e  “explain the phenomena of  h of hyperinflation from one from one of the following  perspectives following perspectives: Post-Keynesian,  Monetarist  Monetarist, Macroeconomic, Microeconomic, or Behavioural Economics. ”  ” 

Suggested assessment  

Students are assessed on t heir knowledge of the role as appl ied  in applied in the given scenario, as well as  well as their  presentationtheir presentation, communication skills, and group contribution. 

Actions Required by Learner  

Collaborate with other group members to to respond to  the  scenario to the scenario and present to  the  to the class. Engage with with and critique critique other presentations.  Respond within the time allowed to follow up questions. 

Actions Required by Tutor(s)

  • Create Advanced Forum: 
    • Forum type:  Standard  f orum  for  Standard forum for general use.  
    • Group mode: Visible groups (so that all students can view).  
    • Add a new discussion  with with opening scenario. summary of any instructions for students to follow. Pin it to the top of the forum. 
  • Create Rehearsal Forum for students to discuss their roles, research the scenario, practice order practice order of speaking. 
    • Forum type: Standard forum for general use .  
    • Group mode: Separate groups (so that only the students in the group and moderator can see the rehearsal).  
    • Add a   new discussion with with example scenario. 
  • Moderate forum:      
    • Release forum. 
    • Post scenario and scenario and invite responses.   A sk  follow  up questions  to   
    • Ask follow up questions to the group or individuals eindividuals e.g. “How would each of you respond to the claim that X? ”   “Michael” “Michael, what would you consider is the key difference between your explanation and that of Y?”  Facilitate  any  questions ” 
    • Facilitate any questions from the audience.     

References  

Oliver, Simon. (2016). Integrating role-play with case study and carbon footprint monitoring: A transformative approach to enhancing learners’ social  behavior  for social behavior for a more sustainable environment. 11. 1323-1335. 10.12973/ijese.2016.346a. 

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