Group discussions with an introduction from the teacher
Latest revision: 2022-01-26
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An asynchronous group discussion offers a process of reflection between the students and can help them develop an understanding of their own knowledge in relation to others. The discussion can, for example, be based on given questions, where students analyze parts of the course literature and present their conclusions, as well as discuss the theme from their own perspective. The fact that the work takes place asynchronously creates flexibility, in that the students can write when they have the opportunity during the specific time period.
- Advantages
- the student has time to prepare and can choose when they want to share their thoughts and ideas
- contributes to reflective answers
- smaller groups contribute to more students participating more actively in the discussion
- Disadvantages
- It may take time for someone to answer a post, which may create less engagement.
Reading tips
- Dialog, samspel och lärande; Olga Dysthe (red.) (In Swedish)
- Facilitating Asynchronous Distance Learning: Exploiting Opportunities for Knowledge Building in Asynchronous Distance Learning Environments Links to an external site., Prestera, Gustavo E.; Moller, Leslie A. (2001)
- Is the whole greater than the sum of its parts? A comparison of small group and whole class discussion board activity in online courses Links to an external site., Bliss, C., & Lawrence, B. (2009). Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 13: 25-39
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This is how you create group discussions
Create a group discussion
- Click on Discussions in the course navigation for the course you want to create a new group discussion in
- Click the +Discussion button.
- Write a title for the discussion.
- Write a clear instruction to the students what you want them to discuss.
- Check the “This is a Group Discussion” box.
- If you haven’t already created the groups, you will see a box where you have to fill in the name of a new group set. If you have already created a group set, you can choose to use it in the dropdown list. Otherwise, click the New Group Set button to create new groups for this discussion.
- Fill in or enter the date in the "Available from" box if you want to lock the discussion until a certain date. Fill in the "Until" box if you also want to prevent new discussion posts from a certain date.
- Click the Save button to create the group discussion.
Your introduction post is duplicated to every group
The title and the instruction you wrote are now in a separate discussion for each group. The group members of a group only see the group’s posts. You as a teacher can now send the same post to all groups, or go into each group discussion and make separate posts for the group by going in via the links that appear when a new group discussion has been created: