1. Revamping the Tired Discussion Board Corinne Hyde, Ed.D. Brandon Martinez, Ed.D. Kimberly Ferrario, Ph.D.

2. Why use discussion boards (now)?    • Asynchronous learning • Build background knowledge prior to class time • Have students grapple with concepts prior to class time • Accountability for doing the readings • Evaluation- do students understand concepts?

3. What do discussion boards usually look like?    • Text based • Threaded • One or two discussion questions - students all answer the same questions • Students will respond if required to, but rarely otherwise • When students do respond to each other they tend to state their agreement

4. Typical Discussion Board

5. What would we like to be able to do with discussion boards?   • dynamic • multimedia • open ended • connected to the world • relevant outside the classroom

6. What we did:     • part of Open Course Redesign Model • continuous course redesign cycle • student and instructor feedback - discussion boards are boring to read, tedious to grade • looked for ways to incorporate Web 2.0 tools • increase engagement • connections with student interests • open ended • teaches more than one thing (content and technology) • wiki-esque model

7. What the discussion board assignment looks like now    • Involves students finding resources from around the web • Involves students making connections between theory and these resources • Can function within any discussion board system you’re already using • zero cost

8. What people are saying:    • Students: • More interesting posts • desire to read others’ posts • finding new resources • Faculty • Easier to grade • More interesting to read • Finding new resources to share with future classes • Students make connections with shared resources we didn’t even know existed • Students now reference others’ posts in class more often.

9. Option to incorporate cutting edge technology - Voicethread

10. Voicethread benefits    • multimedia commenting • ease of use for students • ease of grading for faculty • visually appealing

11. Voicethread drawbacks    • no threaded conversations • cannot direct responses (tag) to certain individuals • when given the option, students will default to using text instead of multimedia commenting tools.

12. Recommendations for revamping your discussion boards    • Keep the rigor • Add choice • Add multimedia options • Encourage the use of Web 2.0 tools • Be willing to consider “odd” sources • Steal what your students share - it will make your teaching more relevant!