Generating online discussion

Wow! It has been a while! Time just gets away from you when your plate is too full, doesn't it? What with the best job on my campus and a full load of doctoral classes, I guess I let this little blog slip through the cracks. Oh well, I'm back at it now!

I had bookmarked this article on how to generate online discussion [Link to full text] a while back as the topic is one of interest to most of the online faculty I know. Research invariably tells us that online students engage when they are connected, not only to their instructor, but to each other as well. Asynchronous discussion postings are one way we have of trying to make sure that connection occurs and grows. Some of the suggestions offered the above ref'd list include:

• Consider integrating Internet research, in which students include and discuss relevant Web sites as active links in their messages to each other, for example, a misconduct case from Ethics in Science or a Pre-Raphaelite painting from the Victorian Web. When appropriate, encourage students to incorporate visual images and multimedia.
  AND
• Encourage or require students to quote from the textbook, from your lectures and materials, and from their classmates’ posts when they respond to each other and when they write their tests or papers on topics they discussed online. Provide a model for informal documentation for these source references

There is no question, that effective online discussion in a class full of community college students is not an easy goal to attain. Some instructors force the point, requiring a certain number and level of postings as part of the graded activities for the class (the list cited here suggests giving credit but not grading). I'm not sure that gets us where we want to go, but leaving students to their own devices often means no postings at all! So, what are some ways we can encourage lively debate amongst the inquiring minds enrolled in our online classes?

I have always felt that one "no duh" point is that the discussion topic, including the way it is worded can make or break the dynamics of the discussion. A topic or question that doesn't interest anybody isn't going to generate much innovative thought.

I try to tie my discussion topics and questions into some media or third-party product, particularly ones self-discovered by the student. Lately, I have turned to YouTube for the basis of my discussion points and have had pretty good luck engendering conversation on the discussion boards.