Unit 5 Planning and Facilitating Effective Asynchronous Learning
Technique 1: Asking Good Questions that Promote Engagement and Learning
Framing Questions
Typically, in an online course, discussion begins with a question framed by you, the instructor. A well-designed question encourages participation and requires students to apply what they are learning to their responses, both to the initial question and to their classmates’ replies. A poorly designed question can stifle the discussion before it begins.
Ineffective discussion questions
- Questions that lend themselves only to yes/no answers
- Questions that have a single correct response. Many textbook review questions fall under this category. The first student to reply will likely provide a more-or-less correct response. The rest are left with nothing to say, or can only repeat what has already been said.
- Questions requiring only unsubstantiated opinion as a response, when used exclusively.
- Opinion-seeking questions can get the conversation going, but encourage students to provide evidence that supports their opinion, or that refutes the contentions of others.
Effective discussion questions
Good discussion questions are divergent questions. They open up multiple possibilities for response, all valid, and all based on interpretation of course materials and professional or life experience.
- Good questions encourage critical thinking – a deep exploration of the “why” of things.
- Good questions challenge course participants to examine materials and application of new knowledge in real world settings.
- Good questions may ask students to examine an issue or theory in light of their own experience, providing examples from a workplace or community activity.
Developing effective questions within dialogue
Questioning techniques need to go beyond the who, what, where, and when of daily journalism. Critical thinking in discussion allows participants to probe underlying assumptions, explore hypothetical outcomes and explore personal and societal beliefs. Your questions can help students move towards this ideal.
Researchers and instructors at the Concord Consortium, an American non-profit research and training institute for online STEM education, have developed a technique for generating questions they call “full spectrum questioning.” They identify six types of questions, included in the table below:
- Questions that ask for more evidence
- Questions for clarification
- Questions that link or extend responses
- Hypothetical questions
- Cause and effect questions
- Summary and Synthesis questions
The table included here is not intended to provide all the possible questions that you may wish to use, but it does raise some intriguing possibilities. Is dialogue proceeding based on an obvious but unexamined assumption? Consider a question that probes the “so what” response. Do postings rely on a particular understanding of cause and effect? Focus on “questions that seek to identify causes and effects of outcomes.”
Questions that can move dialogue along
| Questions that ask for more evidence | “What evidence can you give to support that view?”
“Can you give us an example of that, from your own experience?” |
| Questions for clarification | “Can you give us an example of that?” |
| Questions that link or extend a group of responses | “Alan said ____, and earlier Gill said ____. Is there a common ground between these two positions?”
“This week, several people have commented on the challenges of following these protocols when time is short. Linda mentioned how time-consuming the process feels when there are many people waiting for her to finish. Larry finds them too cumbersome to use when the unit is short-staffed. Are there ways in which we can streamline the application of the protocol without abandoning it?” |
| Hypothetical questions | “How could things happen (in your workplace for instance) if this procedure was not correctly followed?” |
| Cause and effect questions | “Chris suggested that the IT department should change its procedures to better conform with nursing practice. What impact would those changes have on staffing in IT?” |
| Summary and synthesis | Typically, as moderator, you provide the summary and synthesis at the end of the discussion. Creating this summary is an excellent learning opportunity, especially for the person doing it! An option is to assign students responsibility for summarizing the discussion for each module. |
Questions that hijack discussion
Instructor questions can hijack discussion and be a barrier to learning if:
- They are interjected into conversation without reference to what the students have been talking about.
- They don’t pick up on themes laid out in student responses
- They are contained in responses that consist of 2-3 or even more questions – people become uncertain about what to respond to
- They respond to student questions prematurely, thus giving other students the sense that the question has now been answered, so there is nothing left to be said.
Questions to begin discussion
May be set, based on course content, and used each term.
- Advantages: time saving for the instructor. Can ensure focus on significant points.
- Disadvantages: May come to seem dull to you, the instructor, and to participants.
May be linked to current events
- Advantages: take advantage of the currency of the Web environment. Can include links to news reports and other information relevant to new material.
- Disadvantages: More time consuming for instructors. May not always be possible to find, depending on the course.
May be student generated
- Advantages: Require deep student learning for students to pose questions, for example, based on readings.
- Disadvantages: May be unsuccessful as discussion questions. Require provisions of guidelines for discussion questions to ensure success.
Other ways to start discussion:
- Post a quote from an authority in the subject – one that is provocative, challenging and likely to provoke strong reactions. Ask participants to post their initial reaction to the quote.
- Ask students to identify quotes in the text or other course readings that best illustrate the thesis of a required reading. Ask others to respond to the selection.
- Ask students working in the field, or in a related field, to begin discussion in a particular area by posting a story from their own experience. Ask other students to analyze the story in light of the course readings and discussion.
Questions to avoid to start a discussion:
- assignment or essay type single contributions
- personal review/reflection type sharing that might be better suited for a journal activity
- leading questions where the answer is obvious
- slanted questions which favour one side of an argument or another, and closes down alternative points of view
- overly formal language
