The Power of the Prompt: 5 Steps to Boosting Discussion Engagement
This guest post is by Keri McAvoy, Instructional Design Support Specialist, and Heather Schwitalla, Instructional Designer, at the Center for Teaching and Learning.
Using discussion forums has become a popular and common educational tool in higher-education learning, and with good reason. Most learning management programs have discussion forums already built into their platform, including CoursePlus, Canvas, and Coursera. The many benefits of online discussion boards, include:
- creating a space for in-depth reflection
- allowing students to view and respond to the work of others
- developing thinking and writing skills
- building class community.
Writing engaging discussion prompts is key for dynamic forums that benefit student learning. Bloom’s Taxonomy and its six levels of learning can help faculty instructors write prompts that lead to engaging discussion and higher-level thinking.
Step 1: Identify the Topic
Review your content and choose topics that allow for dynamic discussion. An engaging discussion stems from a prompt that has a multitude of “right” answers.
Step 2: Determine the Domain
Ask yourself, “What do I want my students to learn?” From there, you can determine which level of learning you should focus on in the Bloom’s Taxonomy pyramid. Here is a great resource to help you understand the meaning of each level.
Step 3: Choose a verb
Just like writing learning objectives, a strong verb plays a large role in writing an engaging discussion question or prompt. Use Bloom’s Taxonomy Verb Chart to select a verb that aligns with the corresponding domain you selected in step 1.
Don’t feel constrained to one level of learning or one verb. A strong discussion is often composed of more than one prompt or question to encourage deeper thinking.
Step 4: Write your prompt
Now that you’ve determined the “why” and the verb, ask yourself “What do I want my students to do?” and write out the rest of your prompt.
The more inclusive you can be, the more engaging the discussion. Some ways to make a discussion prompt inclusive are to allow students to use background knowledge to support their answer, spark a friendly debate, or provide examples that show representation from many backgrounds and cultures. Watch this Picnic PD session to learn more about writing inclusive discussion questions.
Step 5: Participate
Just because you are the one to write the prompt doesn’t mean you can’t also participate in the conversation. Modeling social presence in your own discussion is key when aiming to enhance student engagement because it shows your learners that you are paying attention, and that you care!
Use this downloadable chart as a quick step-by-step reference guide.
Conclusion
Don’t limit your use of effectively written prompts to the discussion forum! You may find these techniques useful when crafting prompts for:
- Video session small-group breakout rooms
- Padlet or another whiteboarding tool
- Video session chat prompts
Writing prompts that entice your learners to actively engage in discussion is easier than you may think. It’s a great way to incorporate another tool in your active-teaching toolbox.