Online Course Peer Review

Generally, we include discussions in our online classes because we want our students to interact and learn from one another, right?  But have you ever had a discussion just kind of fizzle or never take off to begin with?  Crafting effective discussion questions can be tricky.  Here’s a site I really like that identifies the different types of questions (analysis, application, synthesis, etc.) and helps the instructor to formulate them:

http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/learningdesign/crafting_question/quest_types

Incorporating a video component into discussions is a fun way to dig deeper into a subject.  I rather recently discovered a link for educators at the NOVA Science NOW site:  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/educators/subject-life.html   Here you’ll find a few dozen brief video clips on various subjects, along with follow-up information and questions.  Require your students to view the videoclip and relate it to what you’re learning in class, or summarize something they found particularly interesting or surprising about the information presented, etc.

I’ve also linked students to YouTube videos and asked them to critique the information found in a particular video.  Based on what was covered in class, what is accurate in the video and what is not?  How could the video be improved, etc.

Have fun as you get your students interacting in the online classroom this semester!