When a few students take on all the \u201cheavy lifting\u201d in your online discussion boards, it doesn\u2019t feel equitable. Learn how to facilitate equitable, meaningful dialogue in your course with discussion board roles.<\/p>\n
Spring 2021 was the first semester I incorporated assigned roles into weekly discussion boards in my Introduction to Digital Literacies (English 213) course. I had two reasons for this change. First, I wanted the discussion board conversations to be more equitable. In previous semesters, I noticed that the same students were always doing the heavy lifting in online discussions. This was an important observation for me because as Elizabeth F. Barkley (2010) explains, students who are working the most are learning the most. By assigning roles, each student gets an opportunity to begin the conversation, respond, and summarize major themes of the discussion.<\/span><\/p>\n Second, I wanted to provide several ways to participate in class discussion. According to Jay Howard (2022), \u201cClass discussion involves risk-taking on the part of the students and the professor.\u201d For some students, speaking in class might be too risky, but the online discussion board is a space where students can take their time to respond.<\/p>\n As a result, participating in the course discussion boards might feel like less of a risk than speaking in class. The risk for me as the instructor involved giving ownership of the discussions to my students. This allows students to \u201cbecome co-creators of knowledge\u201d (Howard, 2022). The students present the content for consideration, ask the questions, respond, and summarize the themes of the conversation without my presence in the space.<\/p>\n I use the roles of architect, landscaper, and closers.<\/p>\n Incorporating discussion board roles also promotes critical thinking, a skill that they need not only in other classes but in their future careers. Additionally, the concepts they learn in-class become functional in their lives as they make connections to their own and others\u2019 experiences on the discussion board. Overall, I saw more total students participating in discussion boards, more interaction between students, and more connections between students\u2019 experiences and course topics.<\/p>\n While I\u2019m still working through using discussion board roles, my experiences have allowed me to reconsider the discussion boards as spaces to promote equity, create more opportunities to participate in the class, and encourage students to think critically about the content and their experiences.<\/p>\n How do you structure your discussion boards for equitable dialogue? Do you use discussion board roles?<\/p>\nTaking Risks<\/span>, Taking Ownership<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
Discussion Board Roles<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Conclusion: Making Connections<\/span> <\/strong><\/h2>\n
References <\/strong><\/h2>\n