Book titled Collaborating Online: Learning Together in Community, by Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt

Book entitled Creating Engaging Discussions by Herman and Nilson

For Online Teaching

Paloff and Pratt’s 2005 text, Collaborating Online Learning Together in Community (Wiley), provides a constructive way for faculty to think through the kinds of questions they can ask in an online discussion forum.

Consider asking questions from these types in your follow-up with students, after students have weighed in. These reinforce the teacher<->student connections explored earlier in this module.

Type 1: Questions that ask for more evidence.

How do you know that?
What data is that claim based on?
What do others say that support your argument?
Where did you find that view expressed in the materials?
What evidence would you give to someone who doubted your interpretation?

Type 2: Questions that ask for clarification.

Can you put that another way?
What's a good example of what you are talking about?
What do you mean by that?
Can you explain the term you just used?
Could you give a different illustration of your point?

Type 3: Open-ended questions.

Sauvage says that when facing moral crises, people who agonize don't act, and people who act don't agonize. What does this mean? (Follow-up question: Can you think of an example that is consistent with Sauvage's maxim and another that conflicts with it?)
What is likely to be the effect of changing from a one-to-one mode of working to a group mode?
How might delivering our courses using the Internet affect our students' learning process?

Type 4: Summary and synthesis questions.

What are the one or two most important ideas that emerged from this discussion?
What remains unresolved or contentious about this topic?
What do you understand better as a result of today's discussion?
Based on our discussion today, what do we need to talk about next time if we're to understand this issue better?

Which type do you rely on most often? Do the other question types help you frame or situate learning in new and useful ways?

For Face-to-Face and Online Teaching

This up-to-date 2018 text contains something for everyone.

Whether teaching in a physical classroom or online, the text contains 14 chapters written by various faculty practitioners.

Includes topics such as avoiding a common pitfall, gauging the effectiveness of an online discussion, or working with introverts, coteaching, and tips for teaching the seminar.

Available as a PDF or chapter download.