If students are asked to write a lengthy essay addressing a vague discussion prompt, there is a greater temptation to let a machine do it for them. But if they are asked to very concisely share their viewpoints on something personally relevant to them, they will likely find it more meaningful to just do it themselves. Ask students to provide a list of three key bullet points rather than three to five paragraphs.
Distance Learning | School of Professional Studies | Northwestern University
Canvas’ Groups area allows you to give students a mini-site in the Canvas course. Students can use this space to collaborate on a project, review each other’s work, post to group-specific discussion boards, or study for an exam.
Depending on how the groups are configured by the instructor, group membership can be selected randomly, manually, or students can join a group of their choosing. Within a group, members have access to a private homepage, discussions, announcements, pages, files, collaborations, and conferences; many of the same features that are part of the full Canvas course site but in this case only available to the members of the group. Note: while student groups are private to the student group members, instructors can enter any student group and view the group activity .
- to assign group projects or assignments.
- if you have a large class, you can break your students up into groups so their discussion groups will be smaller and more manageable.
- to assign students a problem to solve as a group, then they post their answer to a discussion board.
- to ask students to do some peer teaching.
- when you want students to peer review an assignment.
- if you want to divide the class into teams and have them compete. Competition can be motivating and provide variety in the course.
- if you want students to learn collaboration skills.
- if students want to create their own study groups.
How do I connect the groups to an Assignment in Canvas?
Be very clear about explaining the group nature of the assignment in your assignment directions. Then, create a group set (such as “project groups”) then create the groups (such as Group 1, Group 2….). Then, put links to each of the groups in the assignment. This makes it very easy for the student to find their group.
What are the best practices used for a group assignment?
- Giving clear directions for the groups is vital. You may want to set some preliminary deadlines to keep them on track, or they could be required to turn in a timeline or charter.
- Assigning roles might be something you choose to do and then ask students to try on different roles for different projects.
- Write up a clear rubric for the assignment.
- You may include a requirement to reflect on the group’s performance as part of the assignment. These might be confidential evaluations of each group member’s performance. Make this clear at the beginning, so students are aware of this.
- Consider grading in two parts–one part as an individual and one part as a group. This can be facilitated in Canvas. For example you post a case study, then ask students to post their solutions and arguments first as individuals (other students can’t see their peers’ responses). Then, they go off to their groups to debate what the group’s ideal response would be and then they post a final answer as a group
- Be transparent about why you want them to do work in groups. It’s helpful to students to know why you are using this type of learning experience. Explain why it’s worth the extra effort that may be involved.
- Design activities that encourage group interaction but still provide flexibility for student’s schedules.
Why would students use Canvas groups for study groups?
Many studies show that peers teaching each other is a very effective learning strategy. But that can be more difficult to do in an online environment. If you offer this option to students, please share why you think it might be useful. Teaching each other helps students clarify concepts for themselves. If students indicate that they want a Group student area in Canvas, this will allow them to share docs, notes, and easily email each other. They could use Blue Jeans for a call, then take notes in Canvas.
- What are the best practices for designing group projects
- Global Health professors talk about their experiences with group projects – Blue Jeans webinar
- Group work
- Ready, Set, Collaborate
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Making online discussions manageable
I like to think about online discussion assignments as an activity where I break students into small groups much as I do in a face-to-face class. In a face-to-face class where small group discussions are a significant part of the class, class attendance and participation are required and worth points — but not a whole lot of points. I try to give groups some engaging prompts to work from and then roam around the room listening in and addressing questions. In the face-to-face class context, I can’t tell if every group is completely on task all of the time. If some students make comments that are a bit off-base or incorrect, I probably wouldn’t be able to correct all of them in all of the group discussions — nor would I want to. Rather, I’d want students to feel comfortable in their discussions. So long as students stayed engaged for a substantial portion of the discussion period, everyone would receive credit for participating, even if some students were more engaged than others.
In online discussions, students should feel comfortable exploring ideas. Everything they share may not be completely accurate or reflect a full understanding of the concepts presented; class discussions are a tool to help students develop that understanding. In that context, online discussions should be worth a relatively small portion of the student’s grade and graded on a participation basis. Where there are clear expectations for the level of participation, students meeting those expectations can expect to receive full credit. It also means that the instructor doesn’t need to provide detailed feedback on every aspect of the discussion. For example, in the Canvas LMS, the instructor could skim through posts using the Speedgrader and does not necessarily need to reply to posts in the discussion board itself.
Set consistent, straightforward expectations
Although there may be advantages to changing things up week-to-week in certain contexts, in my view, online students appreciate consistent expectations. So although the content discussed changes, overall discussion expectations should be pretty much the same. There should be clear expectations regarding the number of posts, replies, and the content to be presented in each post. And if a student meaningfully participates in the discussion early in the week and makes the requisite number of replies, they should not be docked points for not participating towards the end of the week.
If you have a lot of students, consider taking a “spot-checking” approach to grading: closely review some student’s posts some of the time and only do a cursory review at other times. I teach in the health sciences where students pursuing careers in health professions will anticipate random audits of medical charts and billing records. I use that analogy to explain how I will periodically select some posts for a more careful review at different points in the semester.
Consider implementing such a “spot-checking” approach to grading through either or both of the following:
- Select a few discussion boards where you will more closely review all students’ posts. You will need to budget more time for yourself that week to grade that discussion. I recommend doing this on a discussion board early in the semester to help set expectations and provide feedback for improvement that students will be able to incorporate into subsequent discussion boards throughout the semester.
- Create a spreadsheet to keep track of when you have more closely reviewed a specific student’s discussion board post. For example, let’s say that at the beginning of the semester, you aim to closely review four of the weekly discussion board posts for each student on a rotating schedule. You could use that spreadsheet to keep track of which students’ posts have more been closely reviewed and when so each student has their posts closely reviewed an equal amount of times.
I don’t tell students when or how often a close review of their posts will occur. I like to give myself a bit of flexibility in this depending on how the course is going at different points in the semester.
For the posts I select for closely review, I provide more detailed written feedback and/or use a detailed rubric to award points. I explain this approach to grading in the syllabus. This helps students understand why they may receive full credit on some discussion boards despite minor deficiencies in their posts (e.g., if it is graded on a participatory basis) while they have points docked for those deficiencies on a discussion board post that is randomly “spot-checked” for close review.
Making online discussions meaningful
Although online discussions should be manageable for students to complete and for you to grade, the goal should still be to facilitate meaningful opportunities for critical thinking and the exchange of ideas.
In my experience, the single easiest way to make discussion boards more meaningful is to have students pose their own discussion questions at the end of their initial post. This allows students to ask questions or pursue topics that they would like to be addressed.
In one of my online classes, I use the following instructions for discussion questions:
“ In your initial post, in addition to addressing the question prompts above, pose a discussion question for your classmates. Please focus on the following in crafting your discussion question:
- Pose a question that is distinct from the questions already posed in the discussion question prompts
- Pose a question aimed at generating discussion and debate within your group by eliciting students’ informed opinions or viewpoints, rather than just quizzing knowledge.
- Pose a question that is specific enough that your classmates can meaningfully address them in four or five sentences.
- Use your question as an opportunity to demonstrate your familiarity with specific concepts from the module.”
