Finally, I offer a discussion board strategy that promotes the development of community, allows students to act as co-teachers, and may begin to address what Kristine Blair and Cheryl Hoy describe as potential semester-long one-on-one teaching with every student enrolled in an online course (pp. 37-38): the discussion board Questions topic. Although we may make every attempt to provide clear explanations and multiple methods through which students can access information in an online course, inevitably, questions will arise as they do in f2f classes as well.
A significant difference given the online environment, however, is that other students do not benefit from our responses when they typically are sent via email to an individual student. Alternately, and in an attempt as Simmons and Grabill (2007) explain, “to unite citizens by showing them that others in the community [are] experiencing similar problems” (p. 428), instructors can create a discussion board topic available all semester simply titled Questions and request that students post rather than send their questions via email.
The added benefit here is that students can, and should, be invited to respond to questions as well, once again becoming co-teachers and taking responsibility for the success of the community as a whole. In those instances, the instructor simply may respond to acknowledge a students’ contribution in addressing a peer’s question and model the kind of behavior expected of members of that community (Yancey, 2003, p. 113).
While students should be reminded that more personal matters may be discussed via email or even during virtual or f2f office hours, a significat number of student questions in a given semester will be appropriate for the discussion board thread. These strategies, framed for students within a discussion of civic participation, have the potential to:
- “unite citizens” (Simmons & Grabill, 2207, p. 428) enrolled in the course
- invite students to become co-teachers
- allow for access to and meaningful interaction with course materials to make new knowledge
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