Student-Centered Learning and Online Discussions

Online discussions are a valuable learning activity that requires student interactions with the content, other students, and the instructor. Discussions engage learners with exchanging ideas and perspectives, giving and receiving feedback, as well as participating in social interactions that help build the sense of a learning community. Threaded discussions allow for multiple responses that stimulate a dynamic dialogue to explore various thoughts and viewpoints about a topic. These various interactions promote active student learning through reflection, writing to learn, and applying critical thinking skills. Discussions also provide the instructor with insights into levels of student understanding, and any misconceptions that may need additional information or clarification. Online discussion boards offer an asynchronous collaborative communications space, which can afford many different purposes and benefits to the learning process.

Besides engaging with the course content, discussions can be designed to provide student-centered communications such as “Ask the instructor” for course related questions, or a “Student lounge” that offers an area for informal student conversations. Instructors can also encourage peer-led discussions where students take a more active role in the learning process by creating topics and posing questions about course content, resources, or reading assignments. Additionally, discussions can be developed that include assigned peer reviews, or are designated for use by specific student groups.  Incorporating these methods of using discussions promotes a social presence, and helps develop a community of learners where knowledge is actively constructed through an interactive and cooperative process.  

Canvas provides focused or threaded types of discussions, which can be created in Canvas by adding them directly into a module as an item. For more information, please attend Tim Kochery’s Fall In-Service Conference Day presentation on creating and managing discussions in Canvas.