Strategy Description
Given the adverse effects of large online discussions for student engagement and learning, the entry offers a strategy to establish smaller communities of learners by utilizing stable group sets for a series of learning logs. Steps include soliciting student input on their interests; grouping sets to join together students with common interests; using community-building prompts that include icebreakers, connection to lived experience, and soliciting thoughtful responses; and providing faculty feedback and modeling. Students were enthusiastic about the approach in survey data, with 100% recommending continued use, either as is (76%) or with minor changes (24%).
About the Author
Dr. Mary Adler serves as Professor of English at California State University Channel Islands. Her scholarship includes a focus on writing pedagogy, classroom discourse, and literature instruction; books include Writers at Play (Heinemann) and Building Literacy Through Classroom Discussion (Scholastic, co-authored with Eija Rougle). Her interest in discourse has led to current research on online discussion boards, through two equity inquiry projects and a campus Teaching and Learning Innovation Faculty Fellowship.
Date Created
4-18-2025
Pedagogical Category
Interaction
Rights
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Adler, Mary, "Creating Smaller, Stable Discussion Communities within Larger Online Courses" (2025). Teaching Online Pedagogical Repository. 10.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/topr/10