Faculty Exchange/Aurea Osgood Discusses Using Discussion Forums

Aurea Osgood

General Information Audience - All WSU instructors interested in using online discussion forums in their courses. Interview Date - 5/24/2012 Tools Used - Desire2Learn Discussion Tool Meet the Faculty Member Dr. Aurea Osgood, WSU Professor in Sociology, received her BA in Sociology form Winona State University. She earned her M. A. in Sociology and Ph.D. in Family Sociology and Demography at Bowling Green State University. Aurea has been teaching at Winona State University since 2007. She teaches courses primarily in family sociology (Sociology of Families and Family Roles and Relationships) and social research (Intermediate Social Research). For more detail see her web site here Minne' Hall 232 (507) 457-5427 aosgood@winona.edu Viewing the Interview Segments NOTE: The video segments are temporarily unavailable. The full interview is divided into six segments. Select play to begin viewing Segment 1. To advance to another segments at any time by using the Next button.

Segment Descriptions Please introduce yourself and the courses you teach. Aurea is in sociology and teaches primarily in the areas of family and research methods. How are you using discussion forums in your courses? In this segment Aurea describes specifically how she uses the discussion board in a course taught at a distance and with success in this setting she has pulled this into traditionally taught courses. Please go deeper into the assignment and how your setup discussions. She details here the assignment she uses with this tool and the way she sets course expectations for student participation in the discussion. Do you have any additional evidence that the discussion activities are effective? Aurea has found that using this tool allows much larger numbers of students to participate in the discussions. The level of reflection has increased and have a deeper level of analysis to their contributions to the conversation. Subsequent in-class session have even more ideas and reflection because of the initial opportunity to initiate the conversation. What advice would you give to an instructor interested in using discussion forums? I would recommend spending some time working with students on the logistics of how to post. What role did TLT play in your use of discussion forums? She explains here some of the options you have when integrating this tool in your classes. Good Practices Orientate Students: Make sure to show students where and how to post new threads, reply to posts, and add attachments. Use Discussion as Primmer: By having students participate in discussion forums before class she can bring fringe or introverted students into the conversation and promote creative or alternative perspectives. Key Outcomes Deeper conversations on more perspectives due to larger numbers of students participating in the discussions and outside class time to think about posts. Students seems to relax more, have fun with their posts, and generally finds ways to express their perspectives more effectively. Use of the discussion forum statistics provide a very powerful way to track and grade student participation. Related Articles Learn How to Replicate Aurea's Activity in Your Own Course Using D2L Discussions Forums to support student application of course content Learn More About the D2L Discussion Tool Desire2Learn Discussion Tool Learn More About Discussion Technology Tools for Synchronous and Asynchronous Classroom Discussion Learn More About Facilitating Class Discussion From posts to patterns: A metric to characterize discussion board activity in online classes. Bliss, C. A. and B. Lawrence Asking Questions to Improve Learning, from the Teaching Center at Washington University in St. Louis Increasing Student Participation, from the Teaching Center at Washington University in St. Louis Engaging Students with Online Discussion in a Blended Learning Context: Issues and Implications Studying and Facilitating Dialogue in Select Online Management Courses Teaching with Rubrics: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. This is a great summary of the original article (citation included withing post) by Maryellen Weimer in her blog on The Teaching Professor Discussion Board Grading Rubrics Examples: George Mason Online Discussion Protocols and Rubrics Discussion Rubric Landmark Project Discussion Assessment Boise State University Discussion Rubric Learn More About Collaborative Learning English Majors Practicing Criticism: A Digital Approach Posted April 30th, 2011 by Paul Schacht, Caroline Woidat, Rob Doggett, and Gillian Paku, State Is the whole greater than the sum of its parts? A comparison of small group and whole class discussion board activity in online courses. Bliss, C. A. and B. Lawrence