Seminar Style Courses

Seminar style courses are rich in discussion, which are ideal for online courses. Threaded discussion forums are a great way of organizing an asynchronous discussion web-based course, while chats or videoconferencing can be used for synchronous courses.

Tips for Discussion Forums

Discussion forums promote deep thinking because participants have time to consider, reflect, and revise before posting. Morrison blogged in 2013 on the topic of developing critical thinking in online learning. I believe that thinking critically also means thinking deeply. The blog also includes a great list of discussion questions that you may want to consider.

Encourage  learners to write their posts in a word processing application. This gives them the benefit of being able to save and return to their posting as well as to use tools such as spell check prior to committing their thoughts to an actual post.

Your CMS may allow learners to post documents that contains formating such as headings or APA style; however, keep this to a minimum. If it's a full-formatted paper, it is better to post the attached document rather than attempting to copy and paste it into a forum posting content box.

Tips for Chats

If your course is synchronous and you want to use text-based discussion, consider using chat. Chats are fast-paced and tend to favor quick typists and those who think fast "on their feet." This means that you need to establish ground rules for the conversation—process guidelines that help everyone corral the conversation a little better.

Ask learners to address the comment they are replying to in the event the conversation as become disjointed by intersperse comments. For example,

Joey, that was a thought-provoking comment about world peace, I think....

It's often easier to type a long comment in multiple posts. Ask learners use ellipses to denote that they are continuing a longer comment. This will cue others that they should hold their posts until the "speaker" is finished. For example,

My thoughts on the place of RNs at the bedside are mixed.... I recognize that their skill and expertise is critical, but sometimes I wonder if their services aren't better in a leadership role where they can guide others. For example, Blake says......

Then as this post is being made, the learner can continue with the evidence that supports his/her position.

Encourage learners to forgive, without comment, typographical errors. We all make them. Ignoring them keeps the conversation focused. When we type something like

the ward I use to describe it is... [then post] I meant 'word'

It's usually something that the readers were able to discern from the remainder of the post without clarification. When auto-correct or sloppy typing results in a word that makes the meaning illegible, then it would be appropriate to issue a clarification.