Building in Asynchronous Participation with Discussion Leadership — Mika Kennedy

Intro to Discussion Leadership

While the phrase “discussion leadership” typically brings to mind the work one does to facilitate a conversation in real-time, the shift to virtual learning due to COVID-19 invited two elephants into my Zoom room:

  1. The grim likelihood that our students would be facing a lot more disruption to their ability to attend class regularly, and
  2. the fact that, absent the bodily cues of in-person conversation, nurturing–and then following–a conversation on Zoom is hard.

(Of course, from an accessibility perspective, these elephants have always been in the room, even when that room was brick and mortar.)

The Discussion Leadership assignment I developed for my discussion-based course (a 100-level English class with 26 students) sought to address these challenges by carefully structuring our in-class time with asynchronous work, and by leaving behind a structure that could be accessed asynchronously for anyone who had not been able to attend class.

Here’s how it worked.

Each student was responsible for taking on a Discussion Leadership role for 4 classes throughout the quarter. There were 3 roles to choose from:

  1. Pre-Discussion: Develop 2-3 questions about the text that will guide our class discussion.
  2. Post-Discussion: Identify 1-2 key takeaways from our class discussion. Pose a new question that’s arisen for you, or that you feel we didn’t have time to address in full.
  3. Class Notes: Take detailed, structured notes on our class discussion.

My students posted their Discussion Leadership contributions to that week’s Forum on Moodle, so everyone would be able to locate and reference them. 

Here’s an example of the worksheet I used to introduce the assignment and the aims of each role.

(Student signed up for roles at signup.com. The roles were intentionally doubled-up and there were significantly more slots than required, to allow for maximum flexibility and to increase the likelihood that, at minimum, Class Notes would be covered even if someone forgot, or ended up unexpectedly absent.)

How did we use these contributions?

I typically chose a couple of the pre-discussion questions to structure our class discussions (usually in small groups, where each group would choose a question to focus on). My students were able to exercise ownership of our discussions by highlighting elements they wished to discuss; and if needed, I could still add questions of my own to balance theirs.

The post-discussion syntheses were useful in offering a form of “endcap” to our discussions, which felt particularly important in virtual space, where discussions typically took a little longer and we were often running right up against the end of the period. Sometimes, I’d use the post-discussions to prompt a quickwrite at the start of the next class period, to return us to the thoughts we’d left off on the previous day. And honestly, I think being able to say “[Dilly Bar] posed a really great question I’d like to open with today” helped these quickwrites feel like genuine invitations to muse, rather than instructor-written prompts that secretly had right answers. In small ways, they reinforced our ideal classroom dynamic, where ideally students would talk to each other, rather than respond to me.

These posts also helped paint a picture of what class was like on any given day a student might have missed, and to offer them an opportunity to still engage asynchronously. That being said, Discussion Leadership was not intended as a fully asynchronous course option: The expectation of the class was that you would attend the synchronous meetings as often as possible. When it was not possible, however, it was intended to help make up the difference. 

Students who were absent on any given day had the option of making up their class presence by reading the Class Notes and other Discussion Leadership, responding to questions that arose and offering their own interpretations/comments. While not the same as being able to participate in the synchronous session, it offered a safety net, and an invitation to continue engaging with the course materials/conversation for that day, even if Plan A didn’t pan out.

Maybe this all sounds workmanlike! It’s definitely not flashy. But sometimes simple, strong foundations are the best new gizmo when we and our students are sitting in our houses on fire, muttering “this is fine” to ourselves. 

What did my students get out of it?

My students seemed to appreciate the Discussion Leadership because it wasn’t particularly difficult or time-consuming. As one student pointed out in an anonymous midterm reflection, in an ideal word it’d be stuff they should probably be doing all the time. (Ah, but ours is not an ideal world, is it?) One student noted that choosing to think up pre-discussion questions helped remind them that preparing for class wasn’t just about doing the reading, but engaging with the reading and thinking about what they wanted to say before logging into class. Note-takers would occasionally ask their classmates to repeat a comment to clarify their meaning, actively working to ensure their own comprehension/the accuracy of their record. 

What I most valued about Discussion Leadership, outside of its utilitarian purpose, was the fact that the work was shared, low-stakes, and collaborative: Students didn’t need to stretch themselves to distraction, attempting to take notes while also contributing and listening to others as they made eye contact with their classmates’ Black Zoom Boxes, etc. because they knew they could rely on each other’s work, sit with each other’s insights, or compare their own takeaways from a class with the written record of another. Discussion Leadership helped make our virtual interactions more tangible. It served a written record of our collective knowledge-building, and allowed us to see how far we’d come, even as days blurred and time seemed to corkscrew. 

Not a bad day’s work for a Moodle forum!

A Collection of Thoughts on Building Community.

Anne Marie Butler — Art History

How do we form community? (This was a topic we discussed before the spring quarter began too, but we’re sure you have thought about it more now, and have additional ideas.)

  • like I begin all my classes, in the online version we will continue in the first class to break into groups to discuss how to have respectful discussions and what to do when sensitive topics come up. I give the students agency to set their own boundaries on these issues. We will simply discuss how being online might be different and what else we need to consider.

Sarah Lindley — Art

Here are three assignments for building community:

  • One assignment was “This Became That”, a virtual Exquisite Corpse project. Each week for the second half of the term, students made a response to images of an artwork created by another member of the class. Images of their responses were sent to another member of the class at the start of the next week to be used as the inspiration for the next response. At the end of the term we had “lines” of images representing the transmogrification of their ideas and forms. All images passed through me, so the makers remained secret until the end. I kept my instruction and critique to an absolute minimal and just allowed things to evolve based on their own abilities, thought process, available materials, and energy level. The assignment put them inside each other’s thought process and helped communicate that we are still all connected.
  • The second assignment is on display in fine arts right now. Each student constructed the space where they were living/working in spring term in a 3D modeling program. We then turned those files into plastic molds that I cast plaster into, which resulted in solid representations of the empty space in their homes. The collection of these spaces is displayed as one small installation.
  • The Art Department sent our studio majors two great short colorful books about finding inspiration through community, including We Inspire Me: Cultivate Your Creative Crew to Work, Play, and Make by Andrea Pippins, as a “welcome to senior year gift” for the studio majors. Students will have an assignment that asks them to reflect on the suggestions in the books and develop some community building ideas tailored to the current distancing protocols.  

Josh Moon — Instructional Technology Specialist

There are many elements to forming community in an online course so I’m going to focus on one – time. I know one temptation is to utilize lots  of synchronous time to form community. The more time together, more community, right? This is one area where the in-person experience does not translate to the online experience. I’ve written a longer piece about this.

Alyce Brady — Computer Science

Three things I plan for building community in my fall courses:

  • Before spring quarter began, Sally Reed (Psych.) offered the suggestion to create a PowerPoint deck and have each student contribute a slide introducing themselves.  I used that idea in the spring, asking students to contribute their intro cards before the first day of classes, and found it helpful for me (thanks, Sally!)
  • I plan to break my class down into “lab subgroups” of 4-5 people and give each one a channel in the course team site.  A big part of Day 1 and Week 1 will be having students get to know the others in their sub-group.  
  • I have added a “Community” channel to my course Teams site. 

I’ve described these ideas in more detail in this longer blog piece.

Making a Connection with Assessment and Feedback — Rick Barth

FIDeLity Feedback

L. Dee Fink, in a comprehensive article Integrated Course Design [1], sets out an actionable list of components for designing learning-centered course.

When I read this piece as part of a summer online workshop, I was immediately struck by the approach to assessment and feedback described there and its similarity to what I think was the most successful part of my spring 2020 online course. Fink says “As the students seek to learn how to perform well, teachers need to provide feedback that has “FIDeLity” characteristics:”

  • Frequent: Design your course with daily assessment if possible
  • Immediate: Give students feedback on their work as quickly possible
  • Discriminating: Make it clear to students what is good about their individual work and what needs improvement.
  • Loving: Be empathetic and sensitive when delivering feedback.

OK, I don’t know if I’m all the way on board with “discriminating” and “loving”. For me the idea was “detailed” and “supportive and positive”. That disrupts the acronym, though. Here’s a quote from one of my students on the course evaluations that I was happy to see: “Dr. Barth got assignments back so quickly it was awesome. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced turnaround that quick at K. Comments on homework were always positive, even when critical, and helpful for continued learning.”

How I budget my teaching time for FIDeLity Feedback

A little explanation is in order: Why would being a fast grader build meaningful connection with students? In the old days, I spent nearly four hours each week with students in the classroom during which time connections got formed moment-by-moment with the natural give and take that is natural to that setting. I confess that sometimes, back in those golden old days, my formal feedback on assessments was brief (hopefully concise), mostly impersonal, and maybe occasionally perfunctory. Ouch. My in-class time was designed to fill the gaps: “Let’s revisit the assignment I just turned back” or “Are there questions about what you read in my comments on your papers?”

This approach was reflected in the way I allocated my time as a teacher: I often found myself spending dedicated time planning classtime lecture and activities, and of course the scheduled classtime was inviolable! Then I somehow squeezed grading into my day (or evening) as an add-on. In the online spring, when time lost all its former meaning, I set out from the beginning with a daily time budget for my class that started with a dedicated block of 90 minutes for giving individual feedback (in Moodle) on the daily work. With that time in mind, I worked (and got better with practice) to create assignments that were meaningful for both formative and summative assessment, and were designed to be grade-able in the allotted time.

I didn’t get to know my spring 2020 students like I did in previous in-person classes. But of course not: Different times, different challenges. That said, I tell you with confidence that I did get to know my students’ work better than I ever have. I saw growth in students’ work that either wasn’t there in the past or I simply was too rushed to notice back in the good old days. I think my feedback with FIDeLity characteristics in the spring made my students better in the ways that are most important for them as lifelong learners: more careful thinking, clearer presentation, more attention to detail, and greater realization that they were engaged in a two-way communication with a responsive and supportive reader.

And so back to the idea of making a personal connection, with a little bonus idea about motivation: I’ve done a lot of thinking about student motivation in my classes[2] through the framework of self-determination theory. That’s a model of human motivation that boils it all down to three things: Competence, Autonomy and Relatedness. The world of online learning requires and provides all manner of autonomy in our students. I think FIDeLity feedback helps to provide the other two legs of the motivation stool. The detailed, discriminating feedback gives students an authentic way to view the competence they are building through the work of the class. The “Loving” characteristic provides the relatedness.

[1] Adapted with permission from Creating Significant Learning Experiences by L. Dee Fink, Jossey-Bass, 2013

[2] Eric Barth & Ryan S. Higginbottom (2020): The Calculus Mastery Exam: A
Report on the Use of Gateway-Inspired Assessment Tools at Liberal Arts Colleges, PRIMUS, DOI:
10.1080/10511970.2020.1776804

Form Community by Respecting Students’ Time — Josh Moon

There are many elements to forming community in an online course so I’m going to focus on one – time. I know one temptation is to utilize lots  of synchronous time to form community. The more time together, more community, right? This is one area where the in-person experience does not translate to the online experience, IMO.

Though we haven’t finalized the schedule in my first year seminar (I want student input first), I have communicated one thing to my first year seminar students — I will not “reserve” more time than we will use.  My initial thought is to meet synchronously for one consistent day each week. On the other Registrar “scheduled” days, I may be free, hold office hours, chat with interested students, etc., but I do not expect them to be available. Because we are online only, I expect them to schedule work shifts, study, eat lunch, knit, play Xbox, whatever.

Valuing their time and not asking them to hold time unutilized in reserve is part of community building for me because it honors students as individuals with complex, complicated, shifting lives of which my class is only a part. Clearly defining which part I’ll hold is a gesture of respect, and respect is vital for community.

Things I plan to try for Creating Community — Alyce Brady

I’m still thinking about how to use my synchronous time on Day 1 for creating community, but in the meantime I do have 3 ideas I’m planning to use:

1) Before spring quarter began, Sally Reed (Psych.) offered the suggestion to create a PowerPoint deck and have each student contribute a slide introducing themselves.  I used that idea in the spring, asking students to contribute their intro cards before the first day of classes, and found it helpful for me (thanks, Sally!). I don’t think the students used it to get to know each other, though.  So, for Fall I’m thinking of asking students to go through the cards in Week 1 and find 3 other people that have something in common with them, and then in Week 2 add some new item to their own card and then find 3 new connections.  (Or something like that.)  The template I’m providing students and my own card are below:

2) I plan to break my class down into “lab subgroups” of 4-5 people and give each one a channel in the course team site.  A big part of Day 1 and Week 1 will be having students get to know the others in their sub-group.  I’m going to encourage them to communicate with their lab sub-group when working on assignments and ask each other questions, and I’m going to check in with each sub-group twice a week.  I’m still trying to decide whether to shuffle all of the sub-groups every few weeks, or let productive, collaborative sub-groups continue together and just shuffle sub-groups that haven’t particularly gelled.

3) I have added a “Community” channel to my course Teams site.  I’m going to try to encourage students to post things there that one might put on a shared bulletin board — photos of pets or favorite travel pics, links to cartoons or relevant (or irrelevant articles), etc.  I have no idea whether anyone will contribute, but we’ll see!