How do You Grade Online Forums/Discussions and Encourage Participation?

 

Online Forums/Discussions have become an integral  part of many courses. This means that they need to be assessed and included in the final course grade. They should be interactive, requiring students to respond to other's postings rather than simply posting. In order to encourage this, I have developed a point system that requires students to post and respond to get the maximum number of points. In addition, forums participation is a significant percentage of the final grade, usually equal to a paper (I do not use tests).

I use Turnitin at the end of the semester because I have had plagiarized forum entries (either copied from the internet or from another student). They will not get any points for forums if they do not meet the Turnitin requirement.

Here is my system for grading forums:

Forums/discussions will be graded based on the content, proper grammar, coherence, relevance and proper spelling. Student's original posts should be approximately 250 words, about one double spaced typewritten page.

This is not facebook or text messaging. All posts should be civil and written in a professional manner. 

Forums are the equivalent of in-class discussions. Posts are also confidential to members of the class. Do not share online material of others with individuals outside of class. 

Original weekly posts will be graded in the following manner:

• • 3 points for the original post if it is good (equivalent to a A or B) and it is on time.
  • 2 points for the original post if it is poorly written or does not reflect critical thinking and an understanding of the topic/readings being discussed or does not answer all the questions (equivalent to a C or D) and is on time.
  • 1 point if it is late no matter how good it is.

For student responses to others' posts or questions they will receive 1 point for each of the required two responses. These must be thoughtful, relate to the discussion and should be two to three well written sentences at a minimum. Response such as I agree, you are right, etc. will earn no points. 

Therefore, each week students can receive up to five points for each discussion/forum.

5 = 100%

4 = 80%

3 = 60%

2 = 40%

1 = 20%

At the end of the semester the number of points students have earned in forums are be divided by the the total number of points available to calculate their forum grade, which is XX% (* See Faculty Note below) of the final grade. 

In order to receive a grade for their postings, students must copy all their original postings into one document and upload it into Turnitin by the last day of class. 

*Faculty Note:

Faculty should match the percentage to their own syllabus. I usually make forums at least equal to a paper. I do this for two reasons:

1. It allows those who do poorly on papers to improve their grade by participating.
2. It reinforces the seriousness of participating in the forums.
3.  

I would like to hear from others about how they incorporate and grade online forums/discussions.

1. 
   

The Power of Tweaks and Nudges

Some recent articles talk about small tweaks or nudges that can motivate people to engage in activities. As we enter the second half of the semester, some students are falling behind or forgetting to do assignments. It may be time to increase the tweaks and nudges.

My own experience with hybrid classes reminded me that students lead very busy lives and don't always read the syllabus, course calendar or moodle shell. I found that even though I had given all the dates for the  assignments and I wanted them to be independent learners, that they did not always do assignments on time. I then started to send short reminder emails (using the moodle news forum), trying to be positive and motivational and discovered that the submission of assignments in a timely manner seemed to increase.

When discussing this with students they felt that the reminders were helpful in keeping them on track and made them feel that I really cared about them and their success. This was especially true when the tweaks or nudges had some positive content (ie. After our discussion in class, I look forward to reading your papers) rather than simply a reminder message.

This strategy also worked in classes that meet on a weekly basis. Why not give it a try?

Here are two recent New York Times articles that talk about the the good, the bad and the ugly of tweaks and nudges.

A Better Government, One Tweak at a Time

The Power of Nudges, for Good and Bad

Increasing Class Participation in Moodle Forums

As we begin to move classes online, I have been thinking about how to increase student participation in discussion in forums. In my hybrid classes, I have begun to have independent learning tasks that I want students to share and discuss before our next in-class meetings. I use the "single, simple discussion" format so that students are all in one threaded discussion each week. Each week I have a different task and a new discussion forum.

Even when I graded the student postings or raised questions about their postings, students primarily only posted their answer to the question and didn't respond to others. This pattern occurred even when it was obvious that there were differences of opinions. According to Department of Education guidelines, online course content has to be interactive and should not simply be homework. I wanted to make our online discussions look more like inclass discussions.

The Moodle forum allows faculty to grade student postings by adding up all the points earned on each posting. Only the student themselves sees the faculty ratings. So I set a weekly forum with a maximum of five points. Students earn three points for a good posting  (A or B) that is on time and two points for an adequate posting (C or D) that is on time. A late posting earns only 1 point no matter how good it is and I don't accept any posting over a week late.  So I am requiring students to focus both on the quality and timeliness of their postings. Students earn another 1 point for each relevant, reflective response to another student's posting. Since the total score is set at 5 points, a student who earns only 2 points on their original posting can earn three more for their responses to others. Even someone who does not do an original posting can earn 5 points for the week with five good reflective, thoughtful responses (although no one has figured this out yet). This system seems to have generated some very good discussions. Some students are engaging in dialog and some responding to more than two posts. The total I set in Moodle allows me to not worry that a student will earn too many points as it will not give them more than five. My syllabi identify the value of their forum participation in their final grade.

My ground rules continue to be in process.  Do I want to allow someone to earn the full five points without an original posting? I also need to adjust the time frame, which currently required postings to be submitted before the next in class session, when I usually highlight and discuss the responses for the week. Some people were posting minutes before class so that no one, including me, could read or respond to their postings. And the same individuals were chronically late every week. Some were even posting during class and with students arriving late to class. For the future I am thinking about moving up the dates for original postings to two or three days before the next class and responses to the day before class.

I would be interested in hearing how others are using discussion forums in their classes.