Assessing Discussion Boards

This video, Assessing Discussion Boards, is being recorded for Tulsa Community College's Instructor Certification Workshop. My name is Lynnda Brown, and I am one of the co-facilitators in the workshop. Are you using or thinking about using discussion boards in your class? This presentation will shed some light on the options that you have. Once a discussion is assigned, the first thing the instructor needs to determine is whether or not the discussion should be graded. This will be determined by the purpose of the discussion. If the purpose is to provide students with a forum to ask questions or to interact with other students about topics of interest, ...then the discussion will probably be upgraded. Although, some instructors use a course questions discussion board to award participation points. If the purpose of the discussion is to engage with the content through collaborative learning, ...then the discussion will most likely be graded. Just as in a face-to-face class, if an assignment is not graded, there will be students who do not participate in or participate at an unsatisfactory level. As the instructor, it is up to you to analyze the purpose of the discussion and determine whether grading is appropriate or not. Once you've decided to grade one or more discussions in your course, you need to think about what you want to grade. What is important to you in a discussion? Many instructors focus on three broad areas: the quantity of posts, the quality of posts, and the timeliness of posts. Here are some things to consider when determining what is important in your course: You might want to consider assessing Promptness and Initiative which speaks to the student's ability to participate in the discussions in a timely fashion and demonstrates self-motivation. Perhaps the Delivery of the Post is important to you. It would address the student's attention to detail in terms of being grammatically correct with few misspellings. For many, the Relevance of the Post is assessed. It permits an objective assessment of the student's ability to post topics that are relevant to the original discussion. An acknowledgement of references is often expected. It also addresses the student who appears to disengage from the course content. Expression Within the Post could be important to you. It addresses the issue of how well opinions are expressed and how ideas or comments are presented. Finally, consider assessing the Contribution to the Learning Community as it speaks to whether or not the student makes an effort to further the development of the collaborative learning experience. A grading rubric is an effective way to communicate your expectations to your students about their discussion board participation. Basically, a rubric is a scoring guide used in subjective assessments. Generally rubrics specify the level of performance expected for several levels of quality. Each is assigned a specific value. Many times, a rubric is developed in a grid format with the levels of performance listed across the top and the levels of quality listed down the side. Then, within each of the grid squares, specific attributes are listed Here is an example of a rubric in a grid format. Another style of a rubric resembles a checklist associated with point values. In this case, levels of quality and performance are identified and assigned a specific point value. Here is an example of a checklist rubric. It doesn't matter what style of rubric you choose just as long as you make your expectations known to your students. Finally, here are some questions to think about... What role will the discussion have in assessing a student's understanding of the learning objectives? After the discussion is complete, what will the discussion "tell you" about the student? Will you intervene to improve participation that is below standard? Should students be required to post a "minimum" number of times? Should a combination of simple responses and innovative posts be an expectation? Should students adhere to specific timeframes for discussion and reflection? There is no "right" answer to these questions. What is important is that you determine what fits best for your class and your curriculum. Thank you for your time.