Within the posts themselves, students commented on similar majors or programs in which they were enrolled, greeted former classmates, offered assistance for work within this course and others, expressed similar concerns about another course, and offered praise for extracurricular activities in which their peers were involved. On a more personal level, participants also invited their peers to share additional information or to elaborate on some aspect of their posts, made connections with peers that were related to work or interests outside of school, noted close proximity to a peer’s home, and simply agreed with a posted comment in the initial biography.
Although I did not receive responses to my biography, I had planned to respond to every student’s biography in order to begin to make connections with students and also to model the kind of interaction that I was expecting for the discussion board over the course of the semester. In keeping with my feminist approaches and my goal of civic rhetoric within the course, I wanted to draw students into the community by asking them questions and allowing them to reveal their identities to peers. Furthermore, I believed that my follow up posts would not only remind students that I was, in fact, on the other side of the screen, but also would encourage them to remain engaged in course activities.
Of the thirty-eight participants, who all received responses to their biographies from me by the end of the first week of the course, 78.9 percent (76.5% in section one and 81% in section two) responded to my response posts. These follow up postings allowed students to comment on connections that I had made with them and to answer the questions that I had posed. In some cases, these follow up posts led the students to ask questions of me as well, yet the ensuing discussions were limited to the individual student and me despite their public appearance on the discussion board.
Overall, this discussion board activity allowed
- me to reveal an identity and to invite students to do the same
- us to create a foundation for the course community
- me to model discussion board activity
- students to take initiative in responding to their peers and in essence to share the teaching.