Discussion Boards and Time Management

It becomes very easy for discussion boards (an online courses in general) to take over an instructor's life, especially if you teach a large online class. I am still figuring out the most efficient processes for me, but here is what I've learned so far.

1. When it comes to managing your discussion boards, choose a frequency, length of time and time(s) of day that are manageable, and stick to them. You don't want your students to think you created the course and then abandoned them, leaving them to fend for themselves the entire semester. But you also don't want to feel that your course has taken over your life. 
• If you let your students know when, how often and in what capacity they should expect to "see" you in the forums, then you won't disappoint them and won't overwhelm yourself. 
• If you have a discussion that is meant to be student-directed (with little to no facilitation from the instructor) make sure the students know upfront so they aren't left to wonder where their teacher went. 
2. Read the posts in order so they make sense, but don't worry about grading at that time. 
• My first semester teaching online, I thought I would save time by grading as I read through the posts chronologically. This actually took more time (at least with the way Blackboard is set up) because of all the clicking and page navigation I had to go through to get from the post to where I could submit grades. 
• What worked better was when I would read through the discussions chronologically, facilitating as appropriate, and then would grade everything at once, by student, after the due date. In Blackboard, instructors can click on a student's name and view all of the posts s/he contributed to a single forum. From there it becomes easy to see how many posts s/he wrote (you my have a minimum required), whether the posts met the requirements outlined in the grading rubric, and submit a grade from there. I thought this would be confusing at first (since I am rereading the posts out of order) but since I had already read them all over the course of the week (and in chronological order) the quick review I would do for grading purposes was enough to remind me of the context in which they were written. And then everything does make sense. 
3. It is important to participate in the discussions as a facilitator, to ensure that the goals of the discussions are met. You don't have to be active in every discussion to do this (though you should be clear about when your students should expect to "see" you in the conversation, as mentioned above). You could and should follow up with lessons learned, a summary or another brief response that shows you were present for the discussion, whether or not you were active in the conversation. 
• To save time, you can have elements of the message pre-written: if you know you want to point out certain concepts, questions to ponder, etc., there is nothing wrong with having all that drafted ahead of time. But make sure that there is also an element of personalization so your students know you're truly part of their learning experience, and modify/add any details to make your message relevant to the current students and discussion.  
• In my class, I address the questions/topics discussed and may write a blog post to elaborate. If it's an issue I addressed in a previous semester, I may send a link to the archived blog post and articulate how it is relevant to the recent discussion.
  
4. Utilize Blackboard's rubric feature, which allows you to create a rubric directly in Blackboard. It takes time to create a rubric from scratch, but if you develop one that is clear and comprehensive, it makes your grading process very quick and easy. Once a rubric is created and attached to the discussion forum or thread, you simply have to check the appropriate boxes; once you hit "Submit", the grade tabulates and auto-populates in the Grade Center.  If your rubric is comprehensive, there is no need to provide much if any written feedback because the grading criteria clearly articulate why the student earned the number of points s/he did.

How to Ensure 'Regular and Substantive Contact'

Yesterday, I attended a discussion about 'regular and substantive contact' in online courses at the Online Teaching Conference held at Long Beach City College. In the state of California, 'regular and substantive contact' initiated by the instructor is required in order for the state to reimburse the college for that course. Correspondence courses, where information is broadcasted to the learner with minimal or no feedback from the instructor, are not funded. Ph.D. candidate Margie White led the discussion and shared some simple and practical ways to satisfy the requirement for 'regular and substantive contact' while providing a truly rich learner experience. Here are a few highlights:

1. Start in your comfort zone.

Consider how you provide 'substantive' contact to your face-to-face (f2f) students. Do you enjoy facilitating class discussions? Do you prefer one-on-one meetings where you provide feedback? Do you have journal assignments where you communicate with your students through extensive feedback on their journal comments? Do you have a hands-off approach to discussions because you want the students to direct the conversation, but then offer concluding remarks and a discussion summary highlighting the key takeaways? Whatever you already do, start with that and just apply it to the online experience. Once you are comfortable with those familiar methods, you can expand your modes of 'regular and substantive contact'.

2. Know your students, content and technology tools.

See what methods fit best with your students and content area, and can be accomplished using technology you have at your disposal.

3. Track student participation.

Have prewritten emails you can send to your students when you notice they are not participating in class, or are not engaged enough to be successful. This is especially important in the first weeks of the course when students are just figuring out how to use the technology, while learning how to effectively study for a new subject and exercise time management. Take advantage of early alert tracking technology and/or statistics tracking if your LMS offers these tools, since they will save you a lot of time and oversight.

4. Facilitate strategic discussions.

 Be actively involved in a way that shows you are present, and that encourages deeper thinking on the part of the students. Don't answer questions that your students could answer for one another, and don't ask right or wrong questions since there is nothing to say after the first person correctly answers the question. Be sure to offer incentives for participation (I.e. grades/points) and use rubrics so students know how they are being graded.

5. Offer public feedback.

Public feedback to students can take place in discussion summaries or weekly summaries; highlight the efforts and actions of individual students as you sum up the key takeaways. You can also respond to student discussion posts to offer direct feedback in a public setting.

6. Offer private feedback.

Private feedback can take place through grade feedback, virtual meetings, and through journal comments. Be sure to tell your students where they can find comments and feedback in their course.

7. Use synchronous tools.

Tools like Blackboard Collaborate, CCC Confer, and Google hangouts are great for office hours, study sessions, final reviews, moderated group work and interactive lessons.

8. Use asynchronous tools.

Create asynchronous presentations, videos, podcasts (with transcripts), and/or voice thread (with transcripts) so students can see you or hear your voice, and feel connected to you directly. For example, you can create a welcome video, weekly video summaries, and quick tutorials.