Online Discussion Management: In Search of Best Practices

While conducting discussions in our online courses, we occasionally may find student comments that detract from learning or strain the classroom environment. Such comments, veering off topic or swerving into inappropriateness, create a dilemma for the instructor: how to mediate such discussions, and when, in certain circumstances, it might be appropriate to delete student posts.

While CCCOnline instructors might start with the general Mutual Respect Policy in their syllabi, they may wish to elaborate upon this in their own classes. Thus, the below is intended as practical advice for instructors, who might consider one of two approaches to communicate discussion expectations to students. The first is a syllabus-bound piece on discussion content that would specifically clarify expectations and guide instructor action in this arena. The second is a course lesson that would engage students in the subject of appropriate discussion practices.

While all this advice is intended to help keep discussions productive and to deter problems, should you face a post that is a candidate for deletion, here are some important notes to keep in mind: 1) Before removing a student’s post, you should talk with your Program Chair (unless the post is so problematic that it calls for an emergency delete). 2) Keep careful records if you do remove any posts: at the Dean’s request, you must either copy and paste the posts in question to a document you can save in the course, or copy and paste the post into another discussion topic closed to students.

Approach One: Discussion Content Management in the Syllabus
The ebb and flow of even the most closely guided discussions naturally depends upon individual personalities and group dynamics; this is clear to instructors with face-to-face classroom experience. Moving beyond the official classroom in an effort to understand discussion management, we might consider a very large, active world of discussions on the web: the blogosphere. As reader-generated posts are vital there, and controversial topics abound, it seems relevant to check “best practices” in that world. After reviewing content policies of two prominent blog providers in light of the unique nature of the online classroom, we suggest the following could be useful to faculty.

A general piece on Discussion Content for online classroom discussions could include a request for polite, professional conversation with a warning that posts may be deleted, at the instructor’s discretion, if they are
-Profane or vulgar,
-Violent or threatening, abusive or personally insulting,
-Advocating illegal activity or spreading spam or viruses,
…and on the more innocuous side,
-Duplicate posts,
-Off-topic, or more fitting for another forum, or
-Containing sensitive information (questions about individual student grades or performance).

Works Consulted
“Blogger Content Policy.” Blogger. Google. 8 Sept. 2010.
“Terms of Service.” WordPress.com. Automattic. 8 Sept. 2010.

Notes on sources:
1. Blogger.com has a Content Policy governing blogs; their “Content Boundaries” include child safety, hate speech, crude content, threats, illegal activities, and spam. They also include an interesting caveat: “Please note that when applying the policies…, we may make exceptions based on artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific considerations or where there are other substantial benefits to the public from not taking action on the content.”
2. WordPress.com lists contributors’ responsibilities, defining “contributor” as one who “operate[s]…, comment[s], post[s] material…or links on the Website.” It goes on to explain that content in question must not be unethical, “unwanted commercial,” “pornographic, libelous or defamatory,” threatening or violent.

Approach Two: Invite Students to Engage the Subject
Another approach to managing online discussions is to invite students to consider the subject themselves. Northern Arizona University’s e-learning Center demonstrates an example lesson (1) in which the instructor asks students to take self-assessments about communicating online (2) and, afterwards, discuss what they think are the “unwritten rules for communicating online.”
An instructor might summarize students’ remarks in a concluding post and would likely end up with a good workable Discussion Content piece for the syllabus.

Works Cited
“Quality Checklist.” e-Learning Center. Northern Arizona University. 8 Sept. 2010.
Watson, Julie. “Study Skills for University.” Materials Bank: a collection of teaching materials. Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies at The Higher Education Academy, University of Southampton, UK. 8 Sept. 2010.

Notes on sources:
1. e-learning Center at NAU: See 1.3.2 on “Quality Checklist” for a screen shot of the lesson mentioned above.
2. The self-assessments mentioned above (titled “Communicating online”) and referenced on NAU’s example lesson are found here.
3. “Study Skills for University”: The full page of lessons (including “Communicating online”) in one click is here.

What do you think? We invite you to post your comments in the appropriate discussion in the CCCOnline Community.

Quality Time is a series of posts concerning course quality issues, best practices, and/or CCCOnline policy.