[Effective online discussion prompts provide a frame of reference through an associated shared experience or learning activity, but there are numerous creative ways in which this context can be brought to bear. For instance, discussion prompts may involve or invoke personal experience, hypothetical scenarios, opinions (with substantiation), student-created work, video clips, etc. (Course Discussion: Context, 2008; Course Discussion: Prompts, 2008).
Here are some ideas for discussion prompts beyond the typical answer/reply structure:
Debate: Kanuka, Rourke, and Laflamme (2007) found that discussions structured like debates encouraged students to exhibit higher order cognitive skills, and Richardson and Ice (2010) found evidence of critical thinking.
Role Play: Have students assume a fictional or non-fiction person and speak from their point of view.
KWL: This is the What do you know? What do you want to know? What have you learned? structure. Baran and Correira (2009) found that this allowed students to bring in prior knowledge and helped guide the course of the discussion. The students also found that to be the efficient and effective by students, due to the fact that the structure largely kept the discussion focused and progressing.
Application: Asking students to engage in practical applications encourages higher-order thinking. For instance, Koh, Herring and Hew (2010) found that when the discussion concerned a project-based activity, the students had to explain and defend their strategies for the activity.
Scenario: Pose a real-life scenario for students to address. It is helpful to provide a web resource that describes a current event.
Review: Have students share projects/papers they are working on and ask for peer feedback.
Visual Metaphors: Offer a visual for the students to interpret and discuss. For example, Joyner (2012) created a discussion activity which asked students, what five words describe aspects of your best work experiences? and what five words describe aspects of your worst work experiences? When all students had contributed to the discussion, she created two word clouds using the web application called Wordle. She then asked the students to interpret the word clouds, which contained the words of all of the students. She also asked them to apply their understanding of the word cloud; If you were a manager, what would you pay attention to in order to create a positive work experience? This discussion prompt helps students first think and relate to the material individually, then see what others think, then interpret as a whole group.]
