Making the Discussion Forum Work

forum: 1a. The public square or marketplace of an ancient Roman city that was the assembly place for judicial activity and public business. b. A public meeting place for open discussion. c. A medium of open discussion or voicing of ideas, such as a newspaper or a radio or television program. 2. A public meeting of presentation involving a discussion usually among experts and often including audience participation.

Forums are about discussion.

The discussion forums for each of the courses will be a central aid to your learning.

• Use the forum to test your growing understanding of the issues and concepts through active dialogues with others.
• Use the forum to learn collaboratively with other students.
• Use the forum to sharpen your critical thinking skills. 
• Use the forum often. For private messages, send an email to the course learning facilitator or to the intended recipient. 

Preparation

• Read the eLecture and do the readings, including the relevant course documents to become familiar with the topic.
• Compose your thoughts perhaps by using a word processing document and then cutting and pasting it into the discussion forum.

Facilitation (In addition to the course learning facilitator, each student/learner must be willing to facilitate in order to move the discussion forward.)

• Do not lecture.
• Be clear about expectations of the participants – for the course as a whole and for each module, assignment or time  period within it.
• Be flexible and patient. Guide the conversation but do not dominate it.
• Be responsive. Especially at the beginning of an online course or activity, ensure that every comment is responded to.
• Do not overload. Contribute no more than one long comment a day or less if the students are actively contributing.
• Monitor and prompt for participation. Email separately and suggest ways in which they might contribute.
• Set up small groups and assign taks to small groups.
• Be a process facilitator.  Make suggestions for improving the experience for all the participants.
• Write weaving comments every week or two, or assign individuals to take on the task of summarizing and focusing the discussion.
• Organize the interaction.
• Set rules and good standards for netetiquette.
• Establish clear norms for participation and procedures for grading online work that give credit for good participation.
• Assign individuals or small groups to play the role of teacher and of moderator for portions of the course.
• Close and purge conferences in stages, giving members an opportunity to save whatever messages they wish to keep.
• Adopt a flexible approach toward curriculum integration on global networks

Participation

• Remember that this is a discussion forum, not a formal publication.
• Make your contributions reasonably short and to the point.
• Contribute, do not reiterate. Extend what others have to say by locating other examples or elaborating on the point.
• Offer your own opinions on the topic or comment on someone else's opinion.
• Raise any questions or concerns you may have about the topic for discussion.
• Share any information you find on new and helpful resources and other relevant websites.

Follow-up

• Contact your course learning facilitator by email to clarify any important points you did not understand.
• Revise and consolidate what you have learned from the discussion.
• Check your understanding of key concepts.
• Paste any postings that you like onto your personal documents.

Ground rules

• Establish, and reach consensus on, ground rules.
• Examples of ground rules:
  • We can all make mistakes so be kind to fellow discussants.
  • Respect everybody's opinion.
  • Challenge all opinions with reasons.
  • Defend challenges and opinions with reasons.
  • Establish the relevance of your evidence to your thesis about the topic.
  • Treat the offerings of others seriously.
  • Clarify your meaning.
  • Define your terms.
  • Practice good netetiquette (the language and rules governing Internet communication).

Adapted from:

http://help-online.murdoch.edu.au/students/studyhelp

http://wp.rutgers.edu/program/media/netiquette.pdf

Harasim, Linda and others. 1998, Learning Networks: as Field Guide to Teaching and Learning Online, Fourth Printing. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.