Online Discussions
2 The Four Roles of an Online Instructor
Observe & Consider
To get us all on the same page, below is an article that outlines a framework will use to consider the various aspects of implementing an online discussion in your course. In the article, the author outlines four roles that help categorize most of the work performed by an online instructor: Pedagogical, Social, Managerial & Technical. It’s often the case that instructors implement an online discussion for reasons encompassed by the pedagogical and/or social role. However, it’s important to consider that all four dynamics are at play.
The Role of the Online Instructor/Facilitator, Zane L. Berge, Ph.D.
Let’s now look at the four roles in a bit more detail and discuss some of the main instructional objectives and/or considerations that fall under each role:
Pedagogical Role – Create discussions that focus energy on critical concepts, principles, and skills.
Key considerations:
- Develop questions that suit your course goals and help students think critically.
- Develop questions that provide room for students to personalize their post in a way that encourages responses from peers.
- Explore the various ways in which instructor participation can help or hinder a discussion.
- Be attentive to assessment and targeted assessment strategies that best parallel the design of your online discussion.
There are a number of ways to address these key considerations. First, you can make efforts to integrate the online discussion and the in-class time as much as possible so that students understand and benefit from both environments. You might also use the discussion board as a source for in-class lecture/discussion topics, and mine the discussion for concepts that aren’t clear and need to be rediscussed in class. Also consider replacing some existing assignments in your syllabus in order to account for the time spent in online discussions. Finally, assessment is one aspect of online discussions that spans the pedagogical and managerial roles. On the front end, developing an assessment strategy forces thorough consideration of pedagogical goals. Then, as implementation begins, assessments rubrics become an important managerial tool for both students and instructors (see managerial role for more details).
These articles and resources explore more pedagogical elements of online discussions:
- Discussion Prompts – This article comes from a repository of blended learning resources by the University of Central Florida. It provides useful guidelines for constructing good discussion prompts. Notice the many helpful examples.
- Cognitive Question Prompts – Use this chart to help develop discussion question that align with your instructional goals. The chart also provides useful prompts for facilitators to use in keeping discussion going.
- Questioning Styles for More Effective Discussion Roles – This short article offers ideas for aligning pedagogical goals with various types of discussion pro