Discussions are online discussion boards where you and your eAcademy students can post messages to each other while easily keeping track of individual conversations. Because discussions are asynchronous, students can take their time composing their replies. They can draft and rewrite their responses until they feel comfortable with their results. Discussions can be used as a non-graded item, but more importantly, discussions can be a graded item that will encourage conversation and collaboration.
REQUIRED: eAcademy teachers must provide students with at least seven (7) days to complete a graded discussion.
Since eAcademy operates online and asynchronously, students are permitted to work on weekends and during the week to ensure they have an adequate amount of time to get the work completed. This is especially important for students with IEPs or 504 plans.
Please note that if you have a discussion assignment that requires more effort, you are permitted to provide students with more than seven (7) days.
Discussions in your eAcademy courses can be used for a variety of tasks.
Course Q & A: This can be a place to ask questions about the course or an individual assignment. Encourage students to look at the discussion thread first before emailing you about questions. Often, the same question has been posted by another student.
Homework: A discussion can be used to discuss assignments where students can give each other helpful hints.
Group Work: A discussion can be a work location for discussing a project and sharing files with small groups.
Analysis: A discussion can be used as an opportunity to share reflections, thoughts, arguments, evidence, or ideas.
Benefits of Using Discussions
Assessment Preparation: Students can use the thoughts and ideas shared in the discussions as learning resources during assessment preparation.
Student-to-Teacher Interaction: Discussions encourage student-to-teacher interaction and help to build relationships.
Student-to-Student Interaction: Discussions can stimulate student-to-student interaction and learning.
Higher-Order Thinking: Discussions provide numerous opportunities for higher-order thinking and reflection. Reflections provide an increased awareness of newly acquired knowledge.
Collaboration: Students that may be shy or quiet tend to open up in an online collaborative environment.
Always Accessible: Due to the nature of the online environment, discussions remove constraints related to time and geography.
Recommended Discussion Guidelines
Soliciting discussion with students in your classrooms is difficult enough, but when you move to the online environment, it can become a big challenge as well. We have to remember that productive discussion that supports learning does not happen automatically and must plan the discussions carefully.
Here are some suggestions.
Carefully prepare open-ended discussion questions that relate to your course learning outcomes. This will elicit divergent thinking from your eAcademy students. These types of discussions can be used for dissecting case studies, reflection, debate, and more.
For learning to progress, provide your students with helpful and constructive feedback. Be prepared to redirect the discussions if they become off-topic.
Provide your eAcademy students with clear expectations for the discussions. Provide a grading rubric if you use discussions as an assessment tool.
Encourage students to reply to one another by requiring them to make at least two substantial responses.
Be prepared to scrutinize what you value most; quality or quantity. Be clear in the rubric.
REQUIRED: Set up a student introduction discussion where you begin by adding the first post and modeling how you expect students to respond. Make your response personal to create a connection with your students, but be aware of boundaries. Have students introduce themselves to begin building connections with each other.
Additional Discussion Guidelines
Set the stage for students and create a welcoming environment.
State the discussion's purpose (e.g., Apply new skills, Analyze an argument, Solve a problem that's current and relatable, Reflect on the week's content).
Provide clear instructions to reduce cognitive load (e.g., Due date, Number of points, Time it will take to complete).
Lead by example and model the behavior you want to see (e.g., Post questions and prompts, Provide feedback to students' posts, Ask thought-provoking questions).
Steps to creating a discussion in Schoology
Navigate to your Schoology course and click the chevron to the left of one of your main folders to expand the folder.
ALTERNATIVE: To add the discussion to your course landing page, select Add Discussion from the Add Materials drop-down menu at the top of the page. The discussion will appear at the bottom of your course. After you edit all the settings, you can move the discussion into a folder, if desired.
Hover your mouse pointer directly below the location where you want to add the discussion until you see a green dashed line.
Left-click your mouse and then click Add Discussion.
Title: Enter the discussion title, which will be displayed inside your folder. Provide a unique and meaningful name for every discussion in your course. This makes it easy for you and your students to locate the discussion in the gradebook. For example, add the week or topic number to the beginning of the discussion name.
Additionally, at the end of the title, it’s very helpful to add the approximate amount of time it will take students to complete the discussion along with the number of points that can be earned.
Description: In the discussion description, provide clear and concise instructions for the discussion assignment. Make sure you explain how to participate in the discussion. This is where you can also add an audio or video recording to enhance the written instructions.
REQUIRED: Per eAcademy course requirements, include in the description the approximate amount of time it will take students to complete the discussion. Also include the number of points that can be earned if you are grading the discussion.
Use the rich text editor tools to apply formatting to the font; change the indent or alignment of selected text; insert a link, image, or table; spellcheck the description; apply paragraph headers; and switch between Visual and HTML.
REQUIRED - Due date and Time: All graded eAcademy discussions must have a Due date and time. To provide students with plenty of time to complete the discussion, set the time to 11:59 PM.
Grading: Check the box next to Enable Grading. If you don’t plan to grade the discussion, then leave the box unchecked.
pts: Enter the number of points the discussion is worth if grading the discussion.
[NEW] Collected Type: Checking the box will disable the ability to add a traditional score to the discussion in the gradebook. This is an Exception code that allows you to forgo traditional grading on a material. Enabling this setting will create a new column in the gradebook.
Category: From the Category drop-down menu, select Discussions.
Period: From the Period drop-down menu, select the grading period that aligns with the Due date. DO NOT select Set as midterm/final. This may negatively impact student grades.
Factor: Leave the Factor setting at the default value.
Scale/Rubric: Leave the Scale/Rubric setting at the default value.
Click Create.
Options (default) at the bottom of the Create Discussion window:
If desired, you can change the Options at the bottom of the Create Discussion window.
Individually Assign: Use this setting to only display the discussion to one or more members of the course or a grading group.
Lock: This setting prevents students from making submissions. You may want to lock the discussion after the due date has passed.
By default, this feature is disabled. Click the Lock icon to get started. From the drop-down menu, select either Lock on… or Lock now. If you select Lock on…, enter the date and time you wish to lock the discussion.
Published to students: Use this setting to display or hide the assignment from the student view. The assignment is published by default and immediately available to students.
Members can see other responses before participating: You can decide if students are able to access their peers' responses before they post. If this setting is enabled, the other students' posts will be grayed out. The message you'll see when hovering over the icon is, "Require members to post before revealing other responses." You may choose this option to encourage originality in your students' posts.
[NEW] Count in Grade: This setting is enabled by default.
If disabled, this setting allows you to exclude a material’s scores from the grade calculations. This allows you, students, and parents to know immediately if a material is used in grading.
An example might be a pre-test you don’t want to count in grade calculations. The assignment grade will appear in purple italics in the gradebook and will not impact a student’s overall grade.
Copy to Courses: This setting allows you to copy the assignment with the current settings and options to another course.